The seventh death
The Seventh Death (original title. The Cleaner ) is the first novel by the New Zealand author Paul Cleave . It was published in English by Random House in 2006 and sold over 250,000 times. The German translation by Martin Ruf was published by Heyne Verlag in 2007 and was number 1 on Amazon Germany's crime / thriller bestseller list in 2007 .
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Joe Middleton lives in Christchurch and seems to have his life under control. He killed six women, but the seventh victim, Daniela Walker, was not killed by him. Joe's purpose in life is now to find the killer of the seventh wife and to attach the entire series of murders to him.
When Joe dives into the Christchurch nightlife in search of victims, he finds Melissa. However, she quickly realizes that Joe is the wanted serial killer, and even manages to push him into the role of victim. But that's not enough, she crushes one of his testicles with pliers and takes his weapon and a knife with her. In the following years Sally takes care of him and cares for him. She sews the wound and takes care of his household. Joe doesn't notice any of this and thinks it's Melissa, whom he recognized between many faints.
Melissa doesn't seem to want to report him to the police because she gives them a false description of the perpetrator. She seems to be as sadistic as Joe. She wants money from him so that she doesn't break her silence. To back up her demands, she kills a prostitute with his knife and places a photo of the knife next to the body that Joe finds in the trunk of a car.
When Joe has finally found the killer of the seventh woman, he lures him into Daniela Walker's house, kidnaps and ties him up. Only on the last pages of the book can the clues from the police, together with those from Sally, clear up the story, with Sally herself being suspected of murder at times.
people
Joe
The book describes the events from the first person perspective of Joe, the butcher of Christchurch , as the media calls him. Joe lives alone in a run-down apartment block. He works as a cleaner in the local police station, which gives him a tremendous advantage, because he is always informed and can follow the investigation into his case.
Joe plays a mentally retarded man for the police, because he is so hardly suspected. But he is very intelligent with a tendency to sadism. He thinks he is smarter than the police and is very successful at the beginning. He has hidden a tape recorder in the police station so that he can follow the police meetings in his case.
Joe prefers to read romance novels and, unlike Sally, sees the world from the bad side . That only changes on the last pages of the book.
Joe is very proud of his two fish, Pickle and Jehovah , which he keeps in a glass on the table.
Sally
The second leading role in the book is played by Sally. She is a maintenance worker at the police station and tries to see Joe as a replacement for her deceased disabled brother, Martin. Sally is the main character in some chapters, although the first person perspective was not chosen in these chapters. Because Sally wants to take care of Joe, she discovers his secret and helps to clear it up.
Joe's mother
Joe's mother, Evelyn, lives in South Brighton on the coast outside the city and is a personality in her own right. Joe pretends to be a car salesman to her. Since his mother still treats him like a little boy, Joe resorts to means to harm her without killing her. For example, he stirs rat poison into her coffee or smears chicken fat in the bathtub. His father committed suicide by exhaust fumes in his car , which can be seen as the trigger for the series of murders.
Melissa, Detective Inspector Carl Schroder and Detective Inspector Robert Calhoun also play important roles in the book.
Audio book
The audio book for the book was published in 2007 . It was published by Audible GmbH . Martin Keßler speaks the audiobook, which lasts more than eleven hours and is described by Audible as unsuitable for listeners under the age of 18.
review
Thomas Sauer saw the result as ambivalent: The “bizarre view of the environment from Joe's eyes does not carry the entire book and the story lacks a little substance for an exciting thriller. In addition, the figures are woodcut-like and therefore hardly believable, so that no real relationship with them wants to be established. Nevertheless, Cleave's idea of writing a novel from the point of view of a serial killer works, thanks to Joe's unusual view of the world, over long stretches and make The Seventh Death a solid debut ”.
Alex Eichenauer and Marcel Scheid, on the other hand, gave almost unlimited praise: “The thoughts and feelings of the characters are described in detail, so their actions are easy to understand. Cleave creates interesting protagonists and gives them a unique character. It's exciting to read how the individual characters develop over the course of the story. Amazingly, he manages to reproduce the behavior of the main character Joe so comprehensively that the reader builds up a sympathy for this serial killer. It is hoped until the end of the story that Joe can carry out his plan and that he will get away with it, knowing full well that he deserves a severe punishment. This understanding of the cruel deeds is mainly due to the way in which the mind of this killer is structured. His humor and caring cover up the negative aspects of his character. In addition, one is always fascinated by the ingenuity and the perfection of his well thought-out actions ”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Via Paul Cleave at www.randomhouse.com.au (English) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Audiobooks magazine
- ↑ Review on www.krimi-couch.de
- ↑ Review on tour-literatur.de
