Trust No One

Starred review from June 1, 2015
Edgar-finalist Cleave (Joe Victim) may not be the first to use the epitome of an unreliable narrator—a man suffering from Alzheimer’s—in a murder mystery, but he makes the most of the concept. In a Christchurch, New Zealand, police station, Jerry Grey, whose mind tends to wander, recounts committing his first murder to a woman whom he fantasizes about strangling with her own hair. To his horror, Jerry learns that she’s not a police woman, as he assumed, but his daughter, Eva, who tells him that his memory of the savage knifing of an attractive neighbor, Suzan, was actually from his first in a series of crime novels written under the pseudonym Henry Cutter. Jerry is further unsettled to hear that he had been found wandering around Christchurch and that he now lives in a nursing facility. In another creepy twist, Jerry believes that he actually killed Suzan, “before he wrote about it.” On almost every page, this outstanding psychological thriller forces the reader to reconsider what is real and what is only a product of Jerry’s derangement. Agent: Jane Gregory, Gregory and Company.

July 1, 2015

New Zealander Cleave is the author of eight previous suspense novels (Joe Victim; Five Minutes Alone), some with recurring characters, but this stand-alone psychological thriller is a radical departure from his norm. Mystery author Jerry Grey, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at 49, begins a Madness Journal for the Future to rely on for his memory. Alternating between normal and forgetful, Jerry believes he has shot his wife and may have killed several young women, whose murders he recounted in his fiction. His family and caretakers try to convince him that it's all in his head, but Jerry frequently escapes the nursing home, with no memory of how he got free. Signs point to him as the possible culprit in a series of new killings, but is Jerry being set up? Cleave cleverly plays on the in-and-out lucidity of Alzheimer's to keep us and Jerry guessing about whether he is a killer and, if not, who might be framing him. In the end, we know, but it's not clear if Jerry does. VERDICT Readers willing to forsake the traditional detective/mystery format will find this an absorbing and generally successful experiment.--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2015
This powerhouse novel plays with the subtexts at the core of the mystery genre. What's real? Whomcan we trust? Is nothing as it seems? These questions hit Jerry Grey with unusual force. He's a successful crime novelist with a glamorous wife and a beautiful daughter. But darkness is coming for him. At 49, he's in the early stages of dementia. He makes a grasp at sanity by struggling to get his remaining memories into a journal. Why do they sound like the plots of his novels? Fresh murders are happening, with familiar details, and the authorities blame him. Only one personJerry's pal, Hansnotices that the facts don't add up. But why has Jerry written don't trust Hans in his journal? He can't remember. Sometimes this thicket of fact and fancy is befuddling in the wrong waysome editorial pruning would have helpedbut the author's gin-clear prose brings the tale to a convincing and disturbing finale. This is a demanding and very dark novel, but readers with a yen for the strong stuff will love it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)