The first time I read Kiwi Auther, Paul Cleave, and judging by the four-star rating it won’t be the last.
Imagine you’re one of the best husband and wife crime writer duos and you wish to keep it that way. Let’s just say you become familiar with people being jealous. What you’re not expecting is a serious crime to break down the happy family door.
Paul Cleave asks the question, can a crime writer actually commit a real murder?
Cameron and Lisa Murdoch have been around the crime writing circuit for some time. Known for constantly joking that only writers of crime know how to get away with murder; the fans and colleagues immediately look at them as suspects when their son Zach disappears.
Spoilers
Fun and games are all very well at the fair, but wrongly accusing someone of child pedophilia. That’s going from zero to one hundred fast. The Murdochs’ son Zach has his struggles and trying to keep his mood swings under control and sustain the couple’s writing career; Cameron seems to struggle to keep his own emotions in line. Father and son butting heads, results in Zach wanting to run away from home which apparently wasn’t the first time Zach stated he was running away. So when the Murdoch’s awake in the morning to discover their son has gone, has Zach truly run away? Has somebody climbed through the open bedroom window from the night before?
Reading The Quiet Places, the reader is put into action as soon as we enter the Prologue. A car speeds with police chasing behind, concluding with a collision and a car on fire. The police hop from suspect to suspect. As this happens the reader heads deeper into their backgrounds I.e. what’s their past? How does that affect their relationships? Cleave asks, can a writer who describes murder, can they commit murder? Reading Cleave’s book another question has developed for me. Do we really know who are neighbors, friends, and family members are? Considering the book was published in the same year as Sarah Everard’s murder (Kent, UK) two years ago; I’m wondering if that true crime case inspired him.