Booklover interview: Paul Cleave

Each week in the Herald on Sunday (one of the New Zealand publications I review crime fiction for), books editor Nicky Pellegrino includes a quickfire 'Booklover' interview with an author or other famous person - asking them about the books they're reading, their favourites of all time, and more.

This past weekend, along with my monthly round-up of crime fiction picks (read here), the Booklover interview was also crime fiction-centric, with 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award winner Paul Cleave sharing his thoughts on various books. Cleave's most recent novel, COLLECTING COOPER, was published in the USA a few months ago, and I understand has just been released in Germany under the title DIE TOTEN SAMMLER (and has already hit the bestseller list there).

In the interview Cleave shares that the book that changed him was MIND HUNTER by John Douglas, a former FBI criminal profiler. "He's the guy who helped create the FBI Behavioural Science Unit," says Cleave, who at the time was concentrating on horror fiction as a budding author. "I read that book about 12 years ago. This guy pointed out that the real horror is crime. I read his books and then wrote The Cleaner."

You can read Cleave's full Booklover interview, including comments on the books he loves most, is reading now, will read next, and more, on the Herald website here.

Review of COLLECTING COOPER by Paul Cleave

Collecting Cooper by Paul Cleave, (Atria, 2011)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

There’s a significant change in Cantabrian Paul Cleave’s latest dark thriller, which hit booksellers’ shelves (online and actual) in the United States this week. For those who’ve read and enjoyed Cleave’s internationally bestselling crime novels, don’t worry – Collecting Cooper is still packed with his usual crackling prose, taut pacing, compelling characters, moments of brutal violence, dashes of black humour, and undercurrents of unease. It’s just that this, his fifth novel, sees the return of troubled ex-cop turned private investigator Theo Tate (from Cemetery Lake); the first time Cleave has had a recurring ‘hero’, as such.

While supporting characters and storylines have overlapped and intertwined, each of Cleave’s previous books have been told through the eyes of a different troubled character, with troubled being a huge euphemism in many cases: serial killer Joe masquerades as a developmentally-challenged police janitor in The Cleaner; Charlie tries to uncover whether he witnessed or perpetrated a brutal double-murder in The Killing Hour; Tate spirals into alcoholism and worse in Cemetery Lake; and accountant Edward fears he’s inherited his imprisoned father’s violent streak as he chases his wife’s killers in Blood Men.

Cleave has become an absolute master at getting readers inside the head of someone with a view well and truly askew, of getting us to care enough about such people (or at least be fascinated by them), despite their failings and faults, to keep us engaged and the pages whirring as we follow their viewpoint throughout his helter-skelter storylines.

Collecting Cooper opens with Tate walking free from Christchurch Prison, where he found himself thanks to bad choices made in Cemetery Lake, into a sweltering heatwave on the outside. Broke and directionless, his plans of avoiding his past life come to nought when first an ex-colleague, Detective Schroder, then the father of the girl a drunken Tate hurt in a car crash, come to him for help finding people who’ve disappeared. Schroder wants Tate to help track a murderer known as Melissa X, an associate of the Christchurch Carver (Joe in The Cleaner). Lawyer Donovan Green wants Tate to find Emma, the girl Tate went to prison for almost killing. Emma’s disappeared, as has her university psychology professor, Cooper Riley. As Tate takes up the trail, he discovers a link to an abandoned mental institution on the outskirts of the city; a place where very bad things happened, years ago.

Cleave’s work definitely sits at the darker end of the crime fiction spectrum, far away from the cosy country house killings of fellow Cantabrian Dame Ngaio Marsh, whose name and likeness adorns the New Zealand crime writing award that Cleave is a finalist for this year.

Despite the darkness, Cleave is no schlock-meister; the blood and brutality amongst his pages is merely one part of a compelling tale (although it may be too much for some). He even raises important issues such as violence against women, the lack of support for those with mental difficulties, and the public’s fascination with serial killers – but rather than screaming such issues from the rooftops, they’re just woven through a tale that fizzes with ferocity. They’re texture, not message, in an exciting book where characterisation, such as Tate’s stumble vaguely towards some sort of redemption, shines brightest of all.

Collecting Cooper by Paul Cleave was released in the United States this week. It is available through Amazon and Book Depository, and locally it is available from online booksellers like Fishpond.co.nz, and some bookstores, such as Penny’s in Hamilton, who are importing it directly.

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This article was first published in the 29 July 2011 issue of NZLawyer magazine, and is reprinted here with permission.
 
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Have you read any of Paul Cleave's novels? Does COLLECTING COOPER sound like a novel you'd be interested in? Comments welcome.

Paul Cleave talks about his latest dark thriller, COLLECTING COOPER, and more

Upcoming Kiwi crime : COLLECTING COOPER by Paul Cleave

The Kiwi crime fiction tap in 2011 continues to pleasantly flow, with several welcome new releases on the horizon from authors whose previous work has been both popular and highly praised, including Ben Sanders (BY ANY MEANS, the follow-up to his #1 bestselling debut THE FALLEN), Paddy Richardson (TRACES OF RED, her third thriller and first since last year's #1 bestseller HUNTING BLIND), the long-awaited return of Paul Thomas (Ned Kelly Award-winning author of THE IHAKA TRILOGY), and a new book from the current king of Kiwi crime, in a global sense, Paul Cleave.

New Zealand readers have remained slow to pick up on Cleave's dark but well-written tales, but the Christchurch-based author continues to go from strength to strength in Europe, where his books have been translated into several languages and sales are approaching 1 million copies - phenomenal for a Kiwi author.

Next month Cleave's fifth thriller, COLLECTING COOPER, is released in the United States (it will also be available on Amazon, including in Kindle edtion, for those not in the USA). It sees the return of Theo Tate, the troubled former cop and private eye from CEMETERY LAKE (2008).

Here's the Amazon blurb:

People are disappearing in Christchurch. Cooper Riley, a psychology professor, doesn’t make it to work one day. Emma Green, one of his students, doesn’t make it home. When ex-cop Theodore Tate is released from a four-month prison stint, he’s asked by Green’s father to help find Emma. After all, Tate was in jail for nearly killing her in a DUI accident the year before, so he owes him. Big time. What neither of them knows is that a former mental patient is holding people prisoner as part of his growing collection of serial killer souvenirs. Now he has acquired the ultimate collector’s item—an actual killer.

Meanwhile, clues keep pulling Tate back to Grover Hills, the mental institution that closed down three years ago. Very bad things happened there. Those who managed to survive would prefer keeping their memories buried. Tate has no choice but to unearth Grover Hills’ dark past if there is any chance of finding Emma Green and Cooper Riley alive.

For fans of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs, and Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series, Collecting Cooper is another “relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted, and shot through with a vein of humor that’s as dark as hell” (Mark Billingham) novel by this glimmering new talent in the crime thriller genre.

'Glimmering new talent' - that's quite an apt description of Cleave, who continues to garner high praise from many of the best exponents of crime and thriller fiction worldwide (Tess Gerritsen, Mark Billingham, John Connolly, Simon Kernick, etc), along with many reviewers. It will be interesting to see how his readership accelerates as his books become more available in the English-speaking parts of the northern hemisphere.

An advance review from Publisher's Weekly calls COLLECTING COOPER, "“A pulse-pounding serial killer thriller.... The city of Christchurch becomes a modern equivalent of James Ellroy's Los Angeles of the 1950s, a discordant symphony of violence and human weakness. Cleave tosses in a number of twists that few readers will anticipate, but the book's real power lies in the complexity of its characters, particularly the emotionally tortured Tate.”

I am really looking forward to reading this book, although I understand a release date has not yet been set for Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, unfortunately. Like many, I may have to acquire myself a US version, as I don't think I'll be able to wait too long.

Sneak Peek: the prologue and first chapter from Paul Cleave's upcoming thriller COLLECTING COOPER

Last week I shared the news that Paul Cleave's fifth Christchurch-set thriller, COLLECTING COOPER, would be published in the United States on 26 July, and that it would see the welcome return of Theo Tate, the very flawed but intriguing protagonist from CEMETERY LAKE, Cleave's third novel. I am really enjoying how Cleave is building a 'world' in his novels - although he doesn't have a series with a recurring hero as such, his books overlap and share minor characters and timeframes etc - so you get a very real sense that all the stories occur in the same world.

Now Cleave has made the prologue and first chapter of his upcoming novel available at his website - read here.

You can also follow Cleave on Facebook here.

What do you think of the opening of COLLECTING COOPER? Have you read any of Cleave's other novels? Thoughts and comments appreciated.

Paul Cleave's COLLECTING COOPER to be released in the United States on 26 July

One of the very best novels I read in 2010 was BLOOD MEN, the fourth dark thriller by Christchurch's Paul Cleave. In fact it was one of three crime novels I highlighted in the Herald on Sunday's end-of-year round-up, saying:

"Kiwi writer Paul Cleave’s fantastic Blood Men further underline his world-class talent for scary thrillers that mix depth and darkness. Told from the skewed viewpoint of Edward, an accountant losing the plot and worried that he hears the same monstrous ‘voice’ as his serial killer father. Cleave’s writing crackles with energy. The pages whir, but there’s also plenty of sly humour and thought-provoking themes beneath the blood."

I'm not alone in my praise for Cleave, who is a rising star on the world stage (and deserving of much more attention by his compatriots). Award-winning and bestselling authors like Mark Billingham, John Connolly, Tess Gerritsen and others are postively effusive. Here's what Billingham had to say after reading Cleave for the first time (note - Billingham doesn't share a publisher with Cleave, so it wasn't one of those in-house 'quotes' arranged by marketers, but a genuine response to another author's work he came across and enjoyed):

"Most people come back from New Zealand talking about the the breathtaking scenery and the amazing experiences. I came back raving about Paul Cleave. These are stories that you won’t forget in a while: relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted and shot through with a vein of humour that’s as dark as hell. Cleave creates fictional monsters as chilling and as charming as any I’ve ever come across. Anyone who likes their crime fiction on the black and bloody side should move Paul Cleave straight to the top of their must-read list."

Cleave's novels have been published (or signed up for publication) in several countries, including New Zealand, France, Australia, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and have hit the bestsellers lists in continental Europe. Three of his first four novels have also made the prestigious Listener 100 Best Books annual list (a very rare occurence for a crime writer).

His next thriller, COLLECTING COOPER, will be released in the United States on 26 July 2011, Cleave's second novel to be published there (after BLOOD MEN). I understand it sees the return of the intriguing Theo Tate character from CEMETERY LAKE, who I found quite compelling, despite his questionable practices and decisions. So, understandably, COLLECTING COOPER is one of my 'most anticipated' books of 2011, along with Vanda Symon's BOUND (which didn't disappoint), Michael Connelly's THE FIFTH WITNESS, Ben Sanders' BY ANY MEANS (his follow-up to his very good debut THE FALLEN), and whatever several of my other favourite crime writers might share with us in 2011.

Cleave has also just shared an early version of the US cover (see above) for COLLECTING COOPER on his Facebook page. You can follow Cleave on Facebook here, or at his website here.

Thoughts and comments welcome.