Blood Men

May 31, 2010
New Zealander Cleave's disappointing U.S. debut focuses on the son of a notorious serial killer. When Edward Hunter was nine, his father, Jack (aka "Jack the Hunter"), was convicted of murdering 11 prostitutes in Christchurch, New Zealand. In the 20 years of Jack's incarceration, Edward hasn't spoken to or visited him once. Edward is doing okay in his struggle to get over his past until the day shortly before Christmas he and his wife, Jodie, get caught in the middle of a violent bank heist that leaves Jodie dead. Edward, who has always feared that he'll turn out like his father, is shocked when Jack contacts him from prison and encourages him to seek revenge on the robbers. He's even more shocked when he takes Jack's advice. While Cleave (The Cleaner) explores intriguing concepts— particularly the gray area between guilt and innocence—and the steady stream of blood never feels gratuitous, too many subplots and character motivations compete for anything to truly resonate.

May 15, 2010
Dad is a serial killer. Can his son avoid the same fate? That's the question posed by New Zealander Cleave in his exceptionally gory fourth novel (Cemetery Lake, 2009, etc.).

When Edward Hunter was nine, he killed a neighbor's dog, feeding it a steak embedded with nails. One thing led to another, and in short order his father Jack was charged with the murders of 11 prostitutes. After his life sentence, Edward's mother committed suicide and his big sister overdosed on heroin. That was 20 years ago. Now Edward is an accountant, a model citizen devoted to wife Jodie and six-year-old daughter Sam. He and Jodie are at the bank when it's held up by six armed robbers. This happens in Christchurch, New Zealand, during Christmas Week, the season of goodwill; if you missed the irony, don't worry, you'll get constant reminders. Edward confronts the robbers, verbally, and Jodie is shot dead. Edward emotes too much for the protagonist of an action story, but then an inner voice kicks in, the same voice he heard as a child dog-killer. He visits Jack in prison; father tells son that he heard the same voice each time he killed, that it wants blood, that they're both"blood men." Go ahead, says Jack; listen to the voice; avenge Jodie. To get him started, he gives his boy one of the robbers' names. Edward goes to work, the cops always one step behind. He'll cause several gruesome deaths, some in self-defense; his daughter Sam will be kidnapped; he'll spring his old man, who'll make up for lost time by resuming his own killing spree. Cleave's assembly-line prose, with its American veneer, becomes numbing; characterization is minimal; there's blood everywhere. The author has some tricks up his sleeve at the end, but they will antagonize the few readers left in his corner.

Neither Edward's existential struggle nor the tracking of the robbers are suspenseful enough to keep our interest.

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June 1, 2010
What was it like to grow up with a serial killer as a father? Edward Hunter knows: his father has a monster inside him, and although hes now in prison, his legacy is something Edward has always feared. But Edward is nothing like his father. He has a good lifefriends, a job, a loving wife, and a child he adores. All that changes though, the moment he calls out to save a bank teller from being killed during a hold-up, and the robbers kill his wife instead. What has he done? How can he fix it? When the police work too slowly, Edward decides to investigate himself, and as he does, he connects with feelings he has denied his whole lifeand discovers his own terrible monster. Compelling, dark, and perfectly paced, New Zealand writer Cleaves psychological thriller explores the evil lurking in us all, working relentless magic until the very last page. Theres nary a misstep in this riveting thriller about the bad deeds even good men sometimes do.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)