Finding Joe

by Anthony Masters

Joe's been acting strangely lately. Causing serious trouble, messing up his friends' lives. But they can't tell anyone. Not even each other. You see, no one would believe them. Everyone looks up to Joe. Then Joe mysteriously disappears. Distraught, his sister Debs pleads with his friends to look for him. Reluctantly, they head for the obvious place - the marsh where they used to play as kids. But they're not kids anymore, and without Joe they're leaderless. How will they ever find him? And do they want to, after what he's done? In fact, they'd be quite happy if Joe stayed missing for good.

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Anthony Masters was a writer, educator and humanitarian of exceptional gifts and prodigious energy. He was, in the parlance of his spiritual ancestors, the ancient mariners, that rare voyager "as gracious as a trade wind and as dependable as an anchor".

He leaves 11 works of adult fiction – notably, Conquering Heroes (1969), Red Ice (1986, with Nicholas Barker), The Men (1997), The Good and Faithful Servant (1999) and Lifers (2001) – and was in the process of completing another, Dark Bridges, which he thought would be his best. Many of these works carry deep insights into social problems that he gained, over four decades, by helping the socially excluded, be it by running soup kitchens for drug addicts or by campaigning for the civic rights of gypsies and other ethnic minorities.

His non-fiction output was typically eclectic. It ranged from the biographies of such diverse personalities as Hannah Senesh (The Summer that Bled, 1972), Mikhail Bakunin (Bakunin: the father of anarchism, 1974), Nancy Astor (Nancy Astor: a life, 1981) and the British secret service chief immortalised by Ian Fleming in his James Bond books (The Man Who Was M: the life of Maxwell Knight, 1984), to a history of the notorious asylum Bedlam (Bedlam, 1977).

Reviews

[Am Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember when the last time was that I rated a book 5 stars. This was a title I picked up solely because I'm now familiar with Anthony Masters' easy-to-read, no-frills writing style and like it a lot. I had no idea what this book was about. Turns out it's a mystery: Joe has gone missing and 3 of his closest friends rally together to find him. They seem a bit reluctant to do so though, and as we read on, the book masterfully explains why. We learn, bit by bit, more about Joe, Paul, Barry and Jake, and the events that unfold between them. The tension is kept high the entire ride, as is the mystery - what has happened to Joe, and were Paul, Barry and Jake somehow responsible?! I was left wondering right up to the very end. And the conclusion, while a bit underwhelming at first, gives you a lot to think about and mull over, leaving feelings of sadness and poignancy in its aftermath.

[Greta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can see why this book is rated so low now. To think I wasted my time reading this at work thinking, it's a quick read, may as well pass the time. I was waiting for something climatic, some terrible deed that Joe has done. Turns out he didn't do anything. This guy was just dead in a lake.

[Lauren Redmond · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF