The Laughterhouse

Paul Cleave

Oct 2012 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

From the author of the international best-selling thrillers The Cleaner, The Killing Hour, Cemetery Lake, Blood Men and Collecting Cooper A gripping new thriller from crime writing sensation Paul Cleave Theodore Tate never forgot his first crime scene &- ten-year-old Jessica found dead in the 'Laughterhouse', an old abandoned slaughterhouse with the 'S' spray-painted over. The killer was found and arrested. Justice was served. Or was it? Fifteen years later, there's a new killer on the loose and he has a list of people who were involved in Jessica's murder case, among them Doctor Stanton, a man with three young daughters. If Tate is going to help them, he has to find the connection between the killer, the 'Laughterhouse' and a growing list of murder victims. And he needs to figure it out fast, because Stanton and his daughters have been kidnapped, and Stanton is being forced to make an impossible decision: which one of his daughters is to die first. 'Piano wire-taut plotting, Tate's heart-wrenching losses and forlorn hopes, and Cleave's unusually perceptive gaze into the maw of a killer's madness make this a standout chapter in his detective's rocky road to redemption.' Publishers Weekly

About the author

Paul Cleave is an internationally bestselling author who 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. He is the author of eight novels and his work has been translated into fifteen languages. He has won the Ngaio Marsh Award for best New Zealand crime novel, he won the Saint-Maur book festival's crime novel of the year in France, has been shortlisted for the Edgar Award and the Barry Award in the US, has been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award in Australia, and has hit the #1 spot on Amazon in three different countries. When he's not writing, he’s trying to add to his list of nearly 30 countries where he's thrown his Frisbee. Paul is the author of The Cleaner, The Killing House, Cemetery Lake, Blood Men, Collecting Cooper, The Laughterhouse, Joe Victim and Five Minutes Alone.