Paul Cleave

Paul lives in the city where all of his novels are set – Christchurch, New Zealand. For as long as he can remember Paul has always wanted to be a writer. His short stories written at school always concerned his teachers, and his High School report card stated there was a time and a place for his kind of writing – and school wasn’t it.

At nineteen, Paul began work on his first few novels will never be allowed out of the bottom drawer.

At twenty-four he wrote The Killing Hour. A year later he wrote The Cleaner. In 2006, six years after it was written, The Cleaner was published. It became one of the biggest selling books ever to come out of New Zealand, picking up several international contracts within it's first year. By the end of 2007, it had sold over a quarter of a million copies, having introduced Joe, a 'loveable' serial killer who works at the Christchurch Police Department to the world.

In 2007 The Killing Hour was released, followed by Cemetery Lake in 2008. Blood Men, his latest novel came out early 2010 in New Zealand.


His fifth book, Collecting Cooper, is due for release 2011, for the first time bringing back a main character from an earlier book – Theodore Tate from Cemetery Lake.

All five books share a similar timeline, with minor characters and plot lines interacting.

Paul is currently working on his sixth book.