Today Paul Cleave's fourth Christchurch-set thriller, BLOOD MEN, will be available in New Zealand (it is/was also released in Australia this month) - the second major local crime/thriller fiction release in February.
It will be interesting to see how this book is promoted and received, as Cleave has quickly developed a large audience in continental Europe, and will be launched in the US (with this book) in the middle of this year. He has also received acclaim from international heavyweights like Mark Billingham, Tess Gerritsen, and Stephen King - but remains (as yet) relatively overlooked here at home.
I have been fortunate enough to read an advance version of this book, and in my opinion it is Cleave's best book yet - and I really enjoyed both CEMETERY LAKE and THE CLEANER. It sounds like a cliche, but I just couldn't put it down. I've read a lot of good books in the past year, but this was one of the few that I found myself immediately picking up on every lunch-break, water break (I don't drink coffee), and mini-break during the working day after I started it - and then immediately reading the remaining pages in one go when I got home that night.
Like Cleave's previous work, BLOOD MEN is a standalone novel written from the first-person perspective of a deeply troubled protagonist. There are minor character links with some of Cleave's earlier novels, which although separate, all occur in the same 'world' he's created.
In BLOOD MEN, Edward Hunter is a happily-married family man with a great life but a dark past; he’s the son of a notorious serial killer who has been in prison for 20 years and will never be coming out. The son of a man of blood. When tragedy strikes, Edward suddenly needs the help of the man he’s spent all his life trying to distance himself from, and prove he’s not like – but as things spiral out of control Edward begins to hear his own dark inner voice, and begins to wonder whether he’s destined to become a man of blood, just like his father, too
Paul Cleave will also be appearing at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in England later this year (I will post more about this soon), as one of the authors on the "Next Ian Rankin" panel.
So Blood Men is now available in stores like Whitcoulls and/or Paper Plus?
ReplyDeleteI don't know - I hope so. Although Whitcoulls has a pretty poor record when it comes to stocking/supporing Cleave in the past, so we'll see.
ReplyDeleteSimile to Odd Thomas? Eddie - Sam, Thomas - Stormy? Nearly direct copy.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this book. I bought it because it came free with a Tess Gerritsen book at the Warehouse (for a bargain price).... but enjoyed The Blood Men more .... maybe I'll hunt out the others he has written ...
ReplyDeleteYou definitely should. Try CEMETERY LAKE or THE CLEANER.
ReplyDeleteAre Cleave's first two books ever going to be available in the US. Just read Blood Men - amazing! Amazon has some used but they are $40 each - seems a little steep.
ReplyDeleteCleave's fifth novel, COLLECTING COOPER, will be released in the USA next year. His first three (THE CLEANER, KILLING HOUR, CEMETERY LAKE) have been tapped for future publication in the USA, but I'm not sure about timeframes. In the meantime, you could possibly get the UK copy of CEMETERY LAKE from amazon.co.uk or bookdepository at a more reasonable price?
ReplyDeleteIf that doesn't work, send me an email to craigsisterson[at]hotmail[dot]com and I'll see if I can help you out from down this way.