Joe Clifford

After spending the 1990s as a homeless heroin addict in San Francisco, Joe Clifford got off the streets and turned his life around. He earned his MFA from Florida International University in 2008, before returning to the Bay Area, where he currently lives with his wife and two sons (Holden and Jackson Kerouac). His autobiographical novel, Junkie Love, chronicles his battle with drugs and was published by Battered Suitcase (2010). He is the author of the award-winning Jay Porter series, as well as several standalones including The One That Got Away, The Lakehouse, and the newly released The Shadow People.

Recently I asked Clifford about what he was reading. His reply:

I’m (almost) always reading more than one book. As I write this, I have just returned from vacation, where I finished three. I am starting a new one tonight. So it’s the rare time I’m technically not reading anything. (Give it an hour.)

You have to have been living under a rock not to have heard about Shawn Cosby, whose Blacktop Wasteland and now Razorblade Tears are taking the crime world by the lapels and shaking the shit out of it. I just finished the former, which was as advertised: amazing. I also just wrapped up Josh Mohr’s latest memoir, Model Citizen, which might be the best memoir I’ve read since Jerry Stahl’s Permanent Midnight. Also: Hilary Davidson’s Her Last Breath (which I was able to score an ARC of!). I just bought Riley Sager’s Survive the Night. Riley is one of those authors I read immediately. So I’m glad I was able to finish the others before his new one dropped. Mary Kubica will have a new one out soon. And like Riley, she is an instant pick up, drop everything, and read. There are myriad other titles that I have downloaded and will occasionally read from, like a Day Keene pulp or Catcher in the Rye, Alice Cooper’s Golf Monster (I’m a huge golf fan, and like Alice, an ex-addict), stuff like that. Despite what the above list may imply, I’d say ninety percent of what I read these days are domestic suspense thrillers, primarily written by women. Shawn and Josh’s books were the first time I’ve read two books by men not in that specific genre in I can’t tell you how long. My go-to list is Mary, Wendy Walker, Hilary, Jennifer Hillier, Paula Hawkins, et al.

Visit Joe Clifford's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Lakehouse.

My Book, The Movie: The Lakehouse.

Q&A with Joe Clifford.

My Book, The Movie: The Shadow People.

--Marshal Zeringue