Review of Paul Cleave’s “Trust No One”

Awesome, and available August 4th.

“Trust No One” is Paul Cleave’s first novel that does not involve the core cast of Christchurch characters from his other books (serial killer Joe, Detective Tate, etc.) and is a fantastic example of a writer who understands how to diverge from his comfort zone and experiment with a new topic/format while still delivering for his readers! Cleave has said himself that “it’s like nothing else [he’s] written before – but still has the style of the other books” and that’s a spot-on assessment. I was sucked in by the expected conversationally gritty narrative, gripped immediately by the tragedy of the main character’s situation, horrified by the prospect of losing one’s mind and being helpless to prevent it, and greatly disturbed and fascinated as I came to realize that Alzheimer’s is the lesser of the story’s many evils.

The main character, Jerry, a crime writer who uses the pseudonym Henry Cutter, has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. What begins as a well-meaning attempt to cope with his disintegrating life rapidly spirals into a nightmare as Jerry begins to lose his grip on reality, unable to discern truth from fiction, memory from imagination, and friend from foe, relying heavily on his “Madness Journal” which proves anything but complete, or reliable. As with all of Cleave’s work, the story is unpredictable, and the answer/conclusion you expect is not the one you get. Cleave does not play nice, he plays with brass knuckles, and every character pays his or her pound of flesh while Cleave keeps you guessing, questioning everything, even the reliability of the narrator. Does Jerry actually have Alzheimer’s? Does he have a split personality? Is he genuinely a crazed psychopath—or is someone using his illness against him to make him believe that he is? What is real and really going on here? Well, I highly recommend you get your hands on a copy and find out! Cleave, yet again, does not disappoint.

Books That Got Me Thinking Differently About Writing…Part Two

A disturbing subject delivered with dignity.

I genuinely LOVE Mo Hayder (the Jack Caffrey series anyway – I’ve yet to read her stand-alone novels). To me she represents the best in gritty crime/suspense paired with a prose style that is practically literary fiction. I don’t believe it is categorized as such, but in my humble opinion, it should be. Her stories are layered, gripping, lyrical, and among the very few that manage to make me grimace, wince, and even sometimes, put the book down and walk away (or lie awake).

This second book in the Caffrey series, The Treatment, is the “worst” in terms of its ghoulishness, and it’s the kind of book you love to hate…or perhaps hate to love? And what it ultimately taught me is that a good writer can tackle a reprehensible subject – pedophilia – so long as it is done with dignity and tact. It’s a fine line, a tricky balance, all eggshells and thin ice, but when done well it will blow the top off any so-called “thriller” or “horror” out there. I’m not saying that I, personally, am ready to tackle such subjects as of yet, but this has given me permission to experiment and be as fearless with my premise or my theme as Hayder is, and as I am with my characters. There are dark crimes and true evil in this world, and literature shouldn’t necessarily shy away from them just because they are uncomfortable or taboo. What literature – and all media – needs to avoid is the glorification of these crimes, however inadvertent or unintended. Hayder has shown me that a talented author can make a novel double as both a warning, and entertainment.

I Might Not Be A Better Writer In California…

…but I would be a happier one. #Monterey

“Perhaps the very ‘otherness’ of what I experience in California makes the place so rivetingly alive for me. The sheer inscrutable mysteriousness of the place – why are people so friendly at the grocery store? – to the unusual – the deeply unsettling experience of watching a distant hillside burst into flames – makes me aware of the high and the low poetry of this place” – Marisa Silver

(http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/oh-california/?_r=0)

Latest Background Noise?

It’s epic. It’s pertinent.

I’ve rediscovered Fall Out Boy, old and new, and it’s motivating. Energizing. Applicable. What else keeps me focused on the cursor and the word count these days? Standouts are R.L. Burnside, AWOLNATION, and Hollywood Undead. Anything relentless, gritty and driving…ideally like my people, a.k.a. “characters.”

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature” – Ernest Hemingway.

Shoot for the (Hollow) Moon.

Someday Baby.

Writing is a Disease.

Secret confession: most days I wish my “characters” were real.