All Who Wander

Now Available

One snowy night in 1998, Brooke Mulcahy’s car slides off the road in rural Vermont. Her car is discovered. She is not. Twenty-one years later, Robert Kirby, Brooke’s half-brother, is paid a visit from a young woman (Lily), claiming to be Brooke’s daughter. Since a tumultuous upbringing, Robert, formerly known as “Bobby,” has enjoyed considerable success. Now an esteemed professor at a private Upstate New York university, Robert has just received a significant NEH grant. After Lily’s visit, Robert’s life is upended.

His wife Stephanie reveals she is unhappy in the marriage and takes their teenage son to visit her sister in PA. Brooke’s former best friend, Aaron Reardon, still devastated from Brooke’s disappearance, offers to help. And forever lurking in the background is Mike Rakowski, Brooke’s ex, a possessive, abusive drug addict.

As Robert’s world unravels, he revisits that night twenty-one years ago where everything went wrong, unearthing a horrible, bone-chilling secret. In the vein of Simone St. James’ The Sun Down Motel and other female-driven domestic psychological thrillers today, ALL WHO WANDER mines the depths of past transgression, begging the question: do past sin automatically negate future happiness?

Praise

“Searing and impressively wrought, All Who Wander gorgeously depicts the ache and strum of the human heart. Clifford’s novel burns by, balancing frustrated relationships, mystery, self-agency and internal conflict with sweeping power and an unforgettable voice. Clifford’s writing grabs you by the shoulders, wrenches you back to life. A highly impactful, exhilarating novel.”
—Jennifer Maritza McCauley, author of When Trying to Return Home
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