Death Becomes Him: cover story on Paul Cleave

There was some fantastic coverage of New Zealand crime writer Paul Cleave in our country's biggest newspaper last weekend: a multiple-page feature article and cover story in the Canvas magazine of the Weekend Herald, written by Arts & Books editor Linda Herrick.

I've had the pleasure of writing for Linda over the past few years, and she's a great supporter of books and the arts in general, including New Zealand writers. It's terrific to see her writing such a comprehensive and interesting article on Paul, and publicising the fact he is our most popular and bestselling author overseas (even if he is still overlooked somewhat at home).

The article covers things ranging from Paul's dark depiction of his hometown, to his true thoughts on Christchurch, his choice not to incorporate the devastating earthquakes into his recent books, the growing problems of book piracy and more. It's well worth a read.

Personally, I particularly like the frisbee photo. I've played frisbee with Paul at several writers festivals and crime fiction events in New Zealand and the UK, and in fact I believe that green frisbee may be the one I went swimming in the Hamilton Gardens lake to rescue, a few minutes before our crime writing panel event (with Vanda Symon, Ben Sanders, and Scott Bainbridge) in early 2012!

Congratulations to Paul and Linda on such a great piece. Go read it.