The Cleaner

October 1, 2012
A generic serial killer and an overly drawn out plot mar Cleave’s otherwise promising debut, first published outside the U.S. in 2006. Posing as mentally challenged, Joe Middleton is all but invisible to the Christchurch, New Zealand, police detectives whose offices he cleans. The police have no clue that “Slow Joe” is “the Christchurch Carver,” a serial killer whose trail of raped and murdered women they are struggling to follow. Of course, this guise ideally suits Joe, who monitors the investigation and makes his next move accordingly. One night, Joe runs afoul of a woman he picks up at a nightclub, who expertly turns the tables and inflicts an injury on Joe that will disturb male readers. Cleave (The Laughterhouse) underscores the banality of evil through his killer, but doesn’t sufficiently develop the man’s character. Fans of Cleave’s later, more polished crime thrillers should be prepared for what is in effect an apprentice work. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory and Company.

October 26, 2015
This thriller, the first in Cleave’s Christchurch Noir Crime series, debuted in his native New Zealand in 2006, arriving in the U.S. in paperback in 2012 and now, finally, in audio. Posing as though he’s mentally challenged, Joe Middleton is all but invisible to the Christchurch, New Zealand, police detectives whose offices he cleans. The police have no clue that “Slow Joe” is “the Christchurch Carver,” a serial killer whose trail of raped and murdered women they are struggling to follow. When a copycat killer adds a victim to his list, Joe undertakes his own investigation, one that gets sidetracked when a mysterious woman named Melissa gives him a not-quite-fatal taste of his own medicine. Actor Ansdell adds a jaunty, upbeat tone to Joe’s thoughts and words that almost compensates for the crudity and ugliness of his deeds. Melissa sounds, at appropriate times, sophisticated, sexy, and sinister. But once she has her sadistic way with Joe, the act and its horrific, bloody aftermath are described in such gut-wrenching detail and at such length that the audio may become almost as painful for listeners as it is for Joe. An Atria paperback.

February 4, 2013
First published in 2007 outside the U.S., New Zealander Cleave’s second Christchurch crime thriller (after The Cleaner) opens on a strong note. When tormented Charlie Feldman, a Christchurch teacher, realizes he may have been directly involved in the deaths of two women, whose murders are leading the news, he seeks out his ex-wife, Jo. Charlie claims he almost hit one of the women with his car, but he stopped and rescued her and the other woman from the savage assaults of a crazy man, whom he thought he killed. Charlie safely returned the women to their respective homes, where their not-quite-dead assailant later impaled them to death. Jo, who left Charlie after witnessing him lose control, has a hard time believing his wild account, and an even harder time believing it after he abducts her to protect her from the “real killer.” Over-the-top developments mar what otherwise is a nicely ambiguous suspense novel. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory and Company.