Joe Clifford's Say My Name was a bit confusing for me. It's billed as "true crime", and there's a forward from the author talking about the disappearance of two of his classmates back in 1985. The disappearance of those girls, twins Ava and Annabelle, is the subject of this book, as Clifford returns to his hometown for a teaching gig and begins thinking back on his memories and wondering why the twins' disappearance was never solved.
But the cover of this book says "true crime novel". "Novel" implies that this is fiction.
So.....was everything I read in this book real or not? Based on a true story but highly embellished?
Maybe that's the appeal of the book. While I thought the discovery of the story and how the narrator put together pieces of the puzzle was interesting, the book was just as much about the narrator (Clifford?) and his inner monologue as it was about solving the mystery of the missing girls. This tended to slow things down a bit. I also did think it was weird how the narrator becomes so obsessed with the case, seemingly out of nowhere. Like, he remembers having a crush on one of the girls, and now it's his moral duty to avenge her! And the ending - for me, it all happened so quickly. Maybe that's because there's a bit of a twist, and it twists right at the end so that everything just finishes.
Would I be interested in reading some of Joe Clifford's other crime fiction? Yeah, probably. But this one didn't really do it for me.
Say My Name is published by Square Tire Books and is available to purchase now. I received a free e-ARC from the publisher.
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