Review: The Quiet People, by Paul Cleave

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful New Zealand crime writers, happily married and topping bestseller lists worldwide. They have been on the promotional circuit for years, joking that no one knows how to get away with crime like they do. After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their challenging seven-year-old son Zach disappears, the police and the public naturally wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time… Are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

Multi-award winning bestseller Paul Cleave returns with an electrifying and chilling thriller about family, public outrage and what a person might be capable of under pressure, that will keep you guessing until the final page…

My Review

Thanks to Anne Cater for organising this blog tour and to Karen Sullivan for sending me a copy of this novel. Orenda are fantastic at accommodating my disability when they can and I very much appreciate it.

What should one do on a manky Saturday in November when allotment plans are inevitably cancelled by Strom Arwen? I don’t know about the rest of you but I spent the day, or at least a good five hours of it reading this novel. I had pencilled it in for Sunday, but since my plans changed I decided to tackle it today.

By ‘tackle it’ I mean my feelings. I stated reading the book a couple of weeks ago, but I had feelings, big feelings, about Zach being kidnapped and the injustice of the parents being blamed. Took me a few days to work through them and work up the gumption to carry on. And am I glad I did!

Telling the story from D.I Rebecca Kent and Cameron Murdoch’s perspectives, the investigator and the suspect was gripping and frustrating, and really pulled the story along. The whiplash of emotions as the story moves from a misunderstanding at a fair ground, which is frustrating but not unheard of, to a child disappearing in the night, is unsettling. The family, especially the father, being considered suspects, while a rival engages in ramping up of social condemnation and misinformation used to make the Murdoch’s look guilty with the help of an unknown police source, told from both sides, with the frustration and anger it must entail pulls you deep into the events. It is shocking, especially the fallout of their arrest and the ugliness of suspicion.

The sudden turns in events as the story evolves in less than a week adds to the breakneck pace. Events seem to be taking place both quickly and slowly when reading the chapters written from Cameron’s point of view, as he desperately wants to find his son and is hounded by police and press. while the chapters from D.I. Kent’s P.O.V. are more measured and reflect the long hours she’s working. This change in the pacing really brought the story to life. I can imagine that for a parent who’s child had been kidnapped, and who is being blamed for their possible death, time would be flexible, but for the police investigating, it’s a case of keeping going for as long as they can. I also liked the way Cameron’s emotions are described, the storm coming and going, his fears and anger. His reactions are totally understandable.

I was not expecting the twist when the kidnapper is revealed or the sudden relief as a second twist emerges. The pacing of events is excellent in this novel, just when it seems like it’s too much, something slows the characters down and makes them think. No one is getting out of this unscathed but at least a couple of people will survive.

We really learn a lot about Cameron and D.I. Kent but other characters are more shadowy, we only see what they want Cameron and Kent want them to see, so the revelation of the kidnapper is very unexpected, although Cameron eventually puts the pieces together.

The description of the locations of the plot are very clear, a city in the middle of agriculture, with many problems, comes through clearly. The modern social problem of people who have been manipulated by ideologues and purveyors of misinformation, spread widely and quickly by internet and email, is demonstrated clearly in this novel, reflecting events in the real world. Ordinary people can be convinced by skilled charlatans to believe the wildest stories and do things they would ordinarily find repugnant.

I have yet to get a disappointing book from Orenda, and this one will sit on the shelf alongside my other books from them.

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ABOUT PAUL CLEAVE

THREE TIME NGAIO MARSH-WINNER PAUL CLEAVE RETURNS WITH THE
ULTIMATE DID THEY/ DIDN’T THEY THRILLER
Paul is an award-winning author who divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where most of his novels are set, and
Europe. He has won the New Zealand Ngaio Marsh Award three times,
the Saint-Maur book festival’s crime novel of the year award in France,
and has been shortlisted for the Edgar and the Barry in the US and the
Ned Kelly in Australia. His books have been translated into over twenty
languages. He’s thrown his frisbee in over forty countries, plays tennis
badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many.
Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulCleave, and his website: paulcleave.com.