Whatever It Takes

Description

When seven-year-old Alyssa is kidnapped, Deputy Noah Harper decides he will do what it takes to find her--but that means crossing lines he can never come back from. Finding the girl safe isn't enough to stop Noah from losing his job, his wife, and from being kicked out of Acacia Pines. He's told if he ever returns, he'll be put in jail and left there to rot. Now, 12 years later, comes a phone call. Alyssa is missing again and her father wants him to honor the promise he made to her all those years earlier--that he would never let anything bad happen to her again. To find her, Noah is going to have to head back to the pines, and come face to face with the past.

Paul Cleave is currently dividing his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where all of his novels are set, and Europe, where none of his novels are set. His novels have so far been translated into 20 languages. He has won the Saint-Maur book festival's crime novel of the year, has been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly award, the Edgar Award, the Barry Award, and has won the Ngaio Marsh award three times for NZ crime fiction. On top of praise from the press -the next Stephen King, uses words as lethal weapons, a writer to watch, and a rising star in the genre - Cleave numbers among his fans top crime and thriller writers. -Mark Billingham wrote: Most people come back from New Zealand talking about the breathtaking scenery and the amazing experiences. I came back raving about Paul Cleave. -John Connolly said that in Paul Cleave 'Jim Thompson has another worthy heir to his throne. - -The Lab's John Heath calls Cleave's writing uncompromising, unpredictable, and enthralling. -Simon Kernick said Cleave writes the kind of dark, intense thrillers that I never like to finish. Do yourself a favour and check him out. -S.J Watson said An intense adrenalin rush from start to finish. It'll have you up all night. Fantastic! -Tess Gerritsen described his book as A riveting and all too realistic thriller and called him a writer to watch. Don't miss any of his novels - The Cleaner, The Killing Hour, Cemetery Lake, Blood Men, Collecting Cooper, The Laughterhouse, Joe Victim, Five Minutes Alone, Trust No One, A Killer Harvest, and Whatever it Takes. You can follow him on his website, Paulcleave.com.

"On almost every page, this outstanding psychological thriller forces the reader to reconsider what is real." -- Publishers Weekly starred review of Trust No One "Breaking Bad reworked by the Coen Brothers." -- Kirkus Reviews starred review of Five Minutes Alone "Uses words like lethal weapons." --New York Times Tense, thrilling, touching. Paul Cleave is very good indeed. --John Connolly, author, The Unquiet Most people come back from New Zealand talking about the the breathtaking scenery and the amazing experiences. I came back raving about Paul Cleave. These are stories that you won't forget in a while: relentlessly gripping, deliciously twisted and shot through with a vein of humour that's as dark as hell. Cleave creates fictional monsters as chilling and as charming as any I've ever come across. Anyone who likes their crime fiction on the black and bloody side should move Paul Cleave straight to the top of their must-read list. --Mark Billingham, author, Lazybones Compelling, dark, and perfectly paced, New Zealand writer Cleave's psychological thriller explores the evil lurking in us all, working relentless magic until the very last page. --Booklist Cleave . . . should not be read without another human being in breathing distance, and not at night. This is the most accomplished of Cleave's works, not for the writing or the story, which is always strong and original, but because Blood Men has a new edge of complexity. Blood Men is not for the faint-hearted. Cleave does brutality well, full-frontal, and it keeps coming. --Nelson Mail An intense adrenalin rush from start to finish, I read The Laughterhouse in one sitting. It'll have you up all night. Fantastic! --S.J Watson, author, Before I Go to Sleep "Cleave writes like the fine-tuned punches of a middleweight boxer--with short sharp jabs to the solar plexus that make you gasp. The Kiwi crime writer scores another knock-out punch with his latest novel . . . The pace and the carnage accelerate toward a climax lasting for several pages and leaving you breathless." --Courier Mail - Brisbane "A gripping thriller. Trust No One draws us into a world where truth blends with delusion. This story of a writer losing his memory and bearings pulls us into a maze where fiction blurs into murder. I couldn't put it down."-- Meg Gardiner, Edgar award winning author, China Lake "Cleave's whirligig plot mesmerises." --People Magazine "Edgar-finalist Cleave makes an implausible, but very creepy, premise work in this powerful, thought-provoking novel . . . impressive crime thriller." --Publishers Weekly starred review on A Killer Harvest "Cleave, a master of dark and compelling thrillers, puts a moral spin on this twisting, chilling tale with its disturbing finale." --Booklist on A Killer Harvest "This powerhouse novel plays with the subtexts at the core of the mystery genre." --Booklist on Trust No One A vivid, jangled exploration of mental illness, dark imagination, and the nowhere territory in between . . . Cleave spins one nightmare scenario after another out of Jerry's homely malady, leaping with such fiendish elan between past and present tense and first-person, second-person, and third-person narration that you may wonder if you've killed someone yourself." --Kirkus Reviews on Trust No One "[A] fiendishly twisted thriller . . . Cleave's masterful plotting skills are matched with superior pacing and characterization." --Publishers Weekly starred review on Five Minutes Alone "[A] powerhouse of a tale... A gripping thriller from beginning to end." --Booklist starred review on Five Minutes Alone "Cleave pulls out all the stops in his seventh Christchurch noir . . . [He] juggles all the elements with impressive ease. Darkly humorous references to horrific violence will resonate with Dexter fans." --Publishers Weekly starred review on Joe Victim A riveting and all too realistic thriller. Cleave is a writer to watch. --Tess Gerritsen, author, The Sinner