Publishers Weekly
New Zealand author Cleave pulls out all the stops in his seventh Christchurch noir, a sequel to The Cleaner, which revealed that “the Christchurch Carver” was Joe Middleton, a police department janitor. A year after his arrest, Middleton’s incarceration and impending trial have put the issue of capital punishment back on New Zealand’s agenda, just in time for a national election. His female partner-in-crime, Melissa X, whose relationship with him is ambivalent at best, is looking for a gunman to take Middleton out before his day in court. The killer, in turn, is banking on the insanity defense to get him off the hook. And an ex-cop who was responsible for finally catching the Carver is hoping to use his inside knowledge to boost a bogus psychic’s TV show. Cleave juggles all the elements with impressive ease. Darkly humorous references to horrific violence will resonate with Dexter fans. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory and Company. (Sept.)
The Listener (New Zealand)
Cleave is a master of evoking the view askew; delving into the troubled psyches of conflicted characters. Former cop and convict Theo Tate, stumbling forward in search of some sort of redemption, returns to the scene of his first crime scene, hunting a killer and kidnapper set on revenge. Ferocious storytelling that makes you think and feel. A blood-stained high point in Cleave’s already impressive oeuvre.
Booklist (starred)
A wonderful book.... The final effect is that tingling in the neck hairs that tells us an artist is at work.
S.J. Watson
An intense adrenalin rush from start to finish, I read The Laughterhouse in one sitting. It’ll have you up all night. Fantastic!
Michael Robotham
Clever, compelling, and not for the faint hearted. Joe Middleton is the guiltiest 'innocent man' in crime fiction.
Suspense Magazine
Cleave does his usual great job of threading two ongoing stories from two different serials into a single, closely knit unit and as usual, keeps the reader eager for more. It’s hard not to empathize with Joe, even cheering for the bad guy is allowed, if for no other reason, we need to know what he will do next.
From the Publisher
Cleave pulls out all the stops in his seventh Christchurch noir.... [He] juggles all the elements with impressive ease. Darkly humorous references to horrific violence will resonate with Dexter fans.
A Best Book of 2012 The Listener (New Zealand)
Cleave is a master of evoking the view askew; delving into the troubled psyches of conflicted characters. Former cop and convict Theo Tate, stumbling forward in search of some sort of redemption, returns to the scene of his first crime scene, hunting a killer and kidnapper set on revenge. Ferocious storytelling that makes you think and feel. A blood-stained high point in Cleave’s already impressive oeuvre.
Booklist
A wonderful book.... The final effect is that tingling in the neck hairs that tells us an artist is at work.
Booklist
A wonderful book.... The final effect is that tingling in the neck hairs that tells us an artist is at work.
Kirkus Reviews
In his latest noir thriller, Cleave (Cemetery Lake, 2013, etc.) again stumbles into the evil environs of contemporary Christchurch, New Zealand. The Christchurch Carver, whose tale began in Cleave's The Cleaner, has been jailed. The Carver, posing as "Slow" Joe, worked as a police station janitor--when he wasn't bloodletting on Christchurch's streets. Now he calls himself Joe Victim, claiming no memory of the murders. The story unfolds with references to his rampage woven into the narrative, enough to let this episode work as a stand-alone novel. However, Cleave's protagonist from other Christchurch thrillers, ex-cop Theo Tate, takes no part. In fact, there's no hero to root for here, except perhaps guilt-ridden, stressed-out Carl Schroder, once Tate's partner but now himself fired from the police. Point of view shifts from Joe, to Schroder, and then to Melissa, whose true name is Natalie Flowers. Natalie has taken on her murdered sister's identity because, "There is something wrong inside of her, something terribly, terribly wrong." Natalie/Melissa, as thoroughly bloodthirsty as Joe, plans to spring Joe from custody as he is transferred to court. The plot is extraordinarily complex, interspersed with Joe's manipulative ramblings to prison psychiatrists, which vacillate among reluctant admissions of sexual abuse by an aunt, his claims that he has no memory of murdering, and his fearsome interactions with other deviants, both prisoners and guards, in the prison's segregation unit. Simultaneously, the disgraced Schroder, employed as consultant to a television psychic, attempts to manipulate Joe while also using his own frayed police connections to locate the body of another police detective. That detective, with his own corrupt history, was another victim of Natalie/Melissa and Joe. The novel is a cringe-worthy exploration of the heart's dark recesses, with a denouement exploding into mass violence as Natalie/Melissa's plot to free Joe goes awry amid a rally for restoration of New Zealand's death penalty. A little Hannibal Lector. A little Richard von Krafft-Ebing. A lot of gore.
