Trust No One: A Thriller

This was a very disjointed book -- no discernible thread. It was hard to keep track do the chronology, because there really wasn't one. I only kept reading in the hopes it would improve, but it didn't. I'll never read another book by this author. Cleave probably thought he was being clever having an Alheizmer patient as, I guess, his protagonist but I considered this insulting to the people who suffer with this disease.

Jerry Grey is a bestselling crime author. Writing under a pseudonym of Henry Cutter, his twelve novels have thrilled readers and granted a comfortable life to him and his family. Jerry is hard at work on his thirteenth book when he forgets his wife's name at a party. This seems like a simple slip of the mind, but soon he becomes more and more forgetful. Finally, he agrees to see a doctor who gives Jerry an unexpectedly grim diagnosis. At the young age of forty-nine, Jerry Grey has the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Fast forward a year and Jerry's descent into dementia has reached a dismal low. His wife Sandra has left him. His daughter rarely visits him and refuses to call him Dad. Abandoned by his family and barely able to remember his past, Jerry finds himself in the care of a nursing home. As his malady continues to ravage his mind, Jerry begins to confuse his own actions with those of the characters he used to write about. He used the Henry Cutter pseudonym as a way to separate the horrors he wrote about from the joys of his family life, but now the two are indistinguishable. Most days find Jerry confused and confessing to murders that took place in his novel.

Jerry has a habit of wandering from the facility in the night. When he is found, he is disoriented and has no recollection of how he escaped or what he did during the time he was gone. The situation becomes more dire when the police show up at Jerry's nursing home. It is no secret that Jerry has confessed to crimes from his novels, but now he has confessed to the murder of a girl who actually existed. Worse, her murder occurred on a night when Jerry escaped. Jerry is certain that he is not a killer, but he has no memory of the events of that night. With no alibi and a group of police seeking any closure to the case, Jerry struggles to defend his innocence and maintain his grasp on reality.

The novel switches back and forth between the past and present. The past is told through Jerry's "Madness Journal" that he started keeping at the start of his diagnosis. He knew that his memory would begin to fail, so he wrote the journal to inform his future self of his life. These journal entries alternate with the story of present day Jerry and his ongoing mental decline. As the novel progresses, The past and present begin to come together and culminate in a electrifying conclusion. The mystery ends up being conventional to the crime genre, but the spin of an unreliable protagonist helps to keep the plot moving and the suspense tightly wound. Trust No One is an adequately dark thriller that skillfully breathes new life into the genre while adhering to the style that readers have come to expect.

Paul Cleave is an accomplished author who has been nominated for and won several literary awards. TRUST NO ONE is a deeply disturbing novel about a best selling crime fiction author who at age 49 finds himself in the early throes of Alzheimer's. Jerry Grey uses the pen name Henry Cutter, and his writing mantra has always been "write what you know, research as much as you can, and fake the rest". The twelve books he's written are about very bad men who subject their victims to various atrocities and commit brutal murders. As Jerry's disease progresses he begins to mix reality with what he has previously written in his novels, convincing himself--sometimes with the assistance of others--that he himself is the murderer of several women known to him. He also begins having conversations with Henry, his nom de guerre, suspecting that Henry may be the actual personality who commits the crimes Jerry is accused of. Despite what appears to be overwhelming evidence pointing to Jerry as the killer, Jerry just simply doesn't "feel" like he did these things.

I was deeply disturbed when I began this novel, both from the horror of reading about someone rapidly losing their mind to Alzheimer's, and from my own recognition at age 65 of not being "as sharp as I used to be". If Paul Cleave is following Jerry Grey's advice of "write what you know", then the author has either witnessed someone making this horrific journey to the land of "where am I and what am I doing here?", or he has done exhaustive research on the progression of Alzheimer's. At times this is an agonizing read but it is also infused with black comedy and subtle humor. In its own way this novel is simply a horror story about someone losing control, a horror based in reality that any of us might face as we age.

The only criticism I have is that the author ends up repeating some of the conversations and events several times while telling his story. While that may be slightly irritating to some readers, it might very well portray how the mind of an Alzheimer's patient functions. Given the choice between "The Big C" and "The Big A", I might very well choose cancer. Since my family is riddled with it, I probably don't have to make a choice.

I really loved the description of this book, and I really wanted to love the book, but didn't. The protagonist, a fictional crime writer who writes under a pseudonym, has been diagnosed with early onset, rapidly progressing Alzheimer's. The book alternates between being written as past journal entries, with the protagonist using the journal as a way to hold onto memories, and chapters written in the present. It's a bit confusing, but considering the protagonist's mental state, I think that aspect works well here. Yet, for a guy suffering from dementia, he sure is able to keep his thoughts together pretty coherently, and his memory always comes back to him at just the right moment, which was a little too convenient. And the pseudonym/alter ego part of the story didn't work at all. This alter ego emerging as its own personality, one whose actions the protagonist is unaware of, one who may be hiding memories from the protagonist, one the protagonist has conversations with...does he have Alzheimer's or dual personalities? It's like the author didn't research Alzheimer's at all. People suffering from dementia don't have the ability to split personalities, with a personality capable of total recall, total control, and the ability to hide things from the other personality. This book had a lot of potential, if the author had done some research on the illness and developed the plot around those symptoms. It's was a great idea for a book, however the execution was a little off, and it was pretty obvious who the real killer was long before the end of the book.

I really loved the description of this book, and I really wanted to love the book, but didn't. The protagonist, a fictional crime writer who writes under a pseudonym, has been diagnosed with early onset, rapidly progressing Alzheimer's. The book alternates between being written as past journal entries, with the protagonist using the journal as a way to hold onto memories, and chapters written in the present. It's a bit confusing, but considering the protagonist's mental state, I think that aspect works well here. Yet, for a guy suffering from dementia, he sure is able to keep his thoughts together pretty coherently, and his memory always comes back to him at just the right moment, which was a little too convenient. And the pseudonym/alter ego part of the story didn't work at all. This alter ego emerging as its own personality, one whose actions the protagonist is unaware of, one who may be hiding memories from the protagonist, one the protagonist has conversations with...does he have Alzheimer's or dual personalities? It's like the author didn't research Alzheimer's at all. People suffering from dementia don't have the ability to split personalities, with a personality capable of total recall, total control, and the ability to hide things from the other personality. This book had a lot of potential, if the author had done some research on the illness and developed the plot around those symptoms. It's was a great idea for a book, however the execution was a little off, and it was pretty obvious who the real killer was long before the end of the book.

Jerry Grey is a fictional crime writer with the who uses the pseudonym of Henry Cutter for his novels and has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the age of 49. He begins to keep a 'Madness Journal' to follow his own progression, but you never know what are truly real or false memories caused by his disease as he confesses to crimes he has written about in his published novels. At first, no one believes his confessions that they perceive to be caused by the dementia progressing in his mind, but dead bodies are turning up and evidence is mounting against him.

Paul Cleave has written a new thriller that makes you question everything you read and question every characters' motives. You cannot make any conclusions due to the unreliability of the protagonist as storyteller and yet the plot progresses forward at a faster and faster pace. If you love this book as much as I did, wait until you read the ending. I believe it is perfect for the story, but your emotions are going to be all over the place.

Thank you so much to Atria Books and Net Galley for allowing me to read a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It was truly my pleasure and I am looking forward to reading Paul Cleave's other novels.

Book Review: TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave
Atria Books, Digital Loan, Publication Date: August 4, 2015

If you are the sort of reader of thrillers and crime fiction who prides yourself on being able to figure out “whodunit” before the end of the story, then TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave will test your mettle. Paul Cleave’s latest novel is a magnificent psychological thriller which contains all the right elements of the genre. The characters, plot, action, tension, suspense, plot and pacing are flawless. Jerry Grey, the protagonist, age 49, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is happily married to Sandra, age 48, and they have one daughter Eva, age 24.

The opening scene is precise, subtle yet powerful. Jerry is at the police station being interviewed by a detective. He has confessed to a murder which occurred thirty years ago, the murder of Suzan, a nineteen-year-old woman with whom Jerry was infatuated as a young man. Suzan’s boyfriend was convicted of the crime, and sent to jail. Jerry needs to confess and he wants absolution. He claims Suzan was the first of many victims, and tells the detective:

“Let the monster have a voice.”

The detective gives Jerry a book called A Christmas Murder. Then the detective explains that Jerry is a crime writer who, under the pseudonym “Henry Cutter” has written twelve bestsellers (the thirteenth is now being edited by his publisher). Jerry is confessing to a murder which he created and included in the crime novel in his hands.

Jerry has had a good life, but the bottom has fallen out because he has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. In order to keep track of his rapid decline, Jerry keeps what he calls a “Madness Journal.” He wants to let “future Jerry” know what “present Jerry” is like, and what he is doing.

“…this is a journal to let you know about your life before the disease dug in its claws and ripped your memories to shreds. This journal is about your life, about how blessed you’ve been.”

Jerry’s fear of losing his mind is no fantasy, because he actually is losing his mind. When young women are murdered, and each is murdered very much like the fictional killings Jerry has written, the characters and the reader are left gaping over who the killer is. Every single character is suspect.

Cleave’s Jerry Grey is one of the most unreliable narrators ever created. The narrative switches from the third-person narrative to the first-person seamlessly. Cleave’s prose is crisp, his dialogue crackles, and the entries in Jerry’s journal, as well as Jerry’s interior monologues, are utterly absorbing. While the plot revolves around quite a lot that is grim and disturbing, Cleave’s talent is such that he manages to include wit and humor with panache. Given Jerry’s Alzheimer’s, the reader is never sure whether what is being told is only what is being shown, or if what is being shown is really what is being told. The narrative pace slows down when necessary, but, as a whole, charges to the finish. The lesson the novel offers is in the title; how much can you trust anyone, even yourself? TRUST NO ONE is a mesmerizing and brilliant thriller which will keep your own brain sharp.

Paul Cleave, the author of this stand-alone novel, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, which is the setting of his award-winning crime novels. These novels have been translated into twelve different languages, and sold over one million copies. I believe Mr. Cleave will have much success in the United States for many years to come.

Thank you, Atria Books, for loaning me a digital copy through NetGalley.

Review of Trust No One by Paul Cleave

Jerry Grey was a crime writer who is married to Sandra and has a twenty-five year old daughter, Eva. Because of an early onset of Alzheimer’s, (at age forty-nine) Sandra has left him, leaving Eva, now a married woman to husband Rick, with primary responsibility for her father Jerry, while he resides outside of Christchurch in a nursing home, which he elopes from whenever the opportunity presents itself. His memories are rapidly fading away with the passage of time but he is able to remember the pen name, Henry Cutter, he used when writing his thirteen crime books. He is currently still writing what he refers to as his “Madness Journal” as he believes his crime writing days have long past, never to return. One of his best sellers, A Christmas Murder, which opened his writer world still hold some vague memories for him and is a part of his kind of limbo Alzheimer’s life period.

As Jerry’s disease progresses, Jerry digresses accordingly. He not only becomes more forgetful, he basic lifestyle drastically changes, as does his relationship with his wife and daughter. He believes that he elopes more often from the nursing home he now resides in after the sale of the family house, which followed the death of his wife. Strange things seem to be happening many of which he believes he may be responsible for. Some of these occurrences involve possible retaliation against a suspicious neighbor while others involve vicious and bloody murders of his wife and other acquaintances. Jerry teams up with his best friend Hans in order to try and figure out if Jerry is indeed responsible for all or any of these occurrences and during this time even Hans comes under suspicion by Jerry.

Even though Jerry’s wife and daughter take every precaution to assure that Jerry behaves and is given a very limited role in the planning and execution of the wedding, Jerry goes completely out of control and during an impromptu speech, Jerry hurls the ultimate insult a faithful wife could possibly receive.

This story built and progressed while sucking me right to questioning just how more absurd Jerry would become. I did have a bit of trouble understanding at times what was going on due to the story shifting back and forth between present and past, but as I adjusted my perspective this shifting process added more to the mystery and intrigue of the story. Half way through the book I was thoroughly hooked and became dizzy from reading. I just wanted to know what was happening in Jerry’s life and had Jerry life changed so drastically by this disease or was something else going on behind the scenes.

There were surprises galore and I enjoyed each unpredictable one. I would rate this book with 4 heavy and bright stars.

A mesmerizing plot combined with heartbreaking realism make “Trust No One” a novel that is almost impossible to put down. Through his focus on a protagonist who is descending into the void created by Alzheimer’s, Paul Cleave’s crime thriller transcends that genre. Individuals familiar with the ravages of Alzheimer's or dementia will recognize the agony affecting all those involved – the individual, the family, friends and society.

Diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s and attempting to maintain his hold on reality, crime novelist Jerry Grey – who writes under the pseudonym Harry Cutter - begins a memory journal that he dubs his “Madness Journal”. Through his entries, the reader gains an understanding of who he was and who he has become and of what he had lost “…The last year had been stolen … His personality stolen. His thoughts and memories twisted and decayed …”

Written in the first person, Jerry’s entries in this journal are poignant, tinged with gallows humor, and are, at times, coherent and clear-sighted. In one early entry, he describes Alzheimer’s as “…it felt like The Very Hungry Caterpillar was about to make its way through your mind, leaving holes everywhere it went as it gorged itself on memories…” Confined to a care facility, Jerry views his room as a representation of his shrinking world “… [it was] miniaturized, a reflection on just how scaled back his life had become …”

Alternating between the first person journal entries and a third person narrative addressing Jerry’s current life and activities, “Trust No One” tells a gripping story having unexpected twists and turns. As horrific as the effects of his disease are, Jerry must contend with memories of crimes and killings. Whether these events are real or whether they are memories of scenes from his novels, they haunt Jerry who must “Trust No One”, not even himself.

Paul Cleave has written a novel that addresses the tragic heartbreak of dementia and Alzheimer’s in a unique, exciting, and engrossing manner. He is sensitive to the individual, giving Jerry a voice that reflects the growing sense of fading away experienced by both those affected personally and those affected tangentially by the condition. He realistically writes of the individual’s growing loss of knowing what is right or wrong, of their loss of inhibition in both their actions and their language, and of their desperate attempts to prove to themselves and to others that they are “normal”. Yet you should not forget, this is also a crime thriller and in that sense, it does not disappoint – definitely a 5-star read!

Many times my daughter has come upon me reading a book and asked, “How is it?” And almost every time I have said, “I don’t know. I haven’t read the end yet.” This is completely true for this one. And oh my my my, what an ending. No, stop worrying, I have no intention of giving away anything.

But I will thank Net Galley and Atria Books. I appreciate the opportunity to read a free DRC in exchange for this honest review.

Above all…you don’t want to forget. If you forget this, you might be forgetting other things, too. That’s a slippery slope that nobody wants to slide down.

Jerry is just 49 years old, and he has Alzheimer’s. After the diagnosis, he starts a journal, partially with the idea of recording all the things he doesn’t want to forget so that he can come back and find them later. But fate has other ideas for our protagonist, and for his nom de plume, Henry Cutter–a cute play on the actual author’s name…or is it his pen name?

As we find ourselves gradually creeping down that long dark tunnel with poor Jerry, the journal becomes more and more confused. Is he a killer? If so, how many people has he killed? Why can’t he remember doing any of it?

But then, he can’t remember much of anything these days…

Trust No One is a brilliantly paced, tautly written piece of psychological fiction, and it is proof that, contrary to the old saying, not all stories have already been written. And the title answers his question, a very good question: who can he trust?

The problem here is that someone in Jerry’s position has to be able to trust someone. And as the plot moves further along, the reader can’t help wondering whether all of the characters in the story actually exist.

Those searching for an absorbing vacation read—or even one to curl up with at home, hunkered under the air conditioner or fan on a dog-hot day—can’t really ask for anything better than this. Cleave gives the reader every possible frisson in this impossibly complex, yet strangely accessible novel.

Highly recommended.

Original review @ 125Pages.com

Trust No One has been languishing on my Kindle for months. I heard great things about it when it came out this past August, bought it in September, then got bogged down with ARC reviews and wasn’t able to read it till now. It is an interesting mix of medical drama, thriller and classic whodunit. Jerry Grey is a best selling mystery author, who has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. The story opens with Jerry confessing a brutal murder to police; the officers then thank him for his time and send him off with his daughter. The murder he confessed to was the plot of his first book, and this is not the first time he has confessed to it and others, all from his books. As Jerry’s memories wax and wane and real life murders occur around him, he realizes that he may not have made up the plots after all.

This is my first Paul Cleave book, and I was not disappointed. The plot was tightly woven and well structured and while I did not love the ending, it fit within the confines of the story well. The writing had a distinctive voice, and had just enough description to keep me interested and intrigued. The pacing flowed well even with a disjointed mind as a narrator. The world created was very real and I could picture the scenes playing out. The characters were well placed in the world, and even though Jerry was an ass, both pre and post Alzheimer’s, he was someone you wanted to root for. Their wasn’t a huge emotional tie in Trust No One other than pity for Jerry and at times disgust, but in a thriller I do not necessarily need huge emotions.

Trust No One was an interesting read that for the most part I really enjoyed. It was twisty and dark and had so many good things going for it. I did not love the comparisons of Alzheimer’s to madness and being crazy, as I have had family members with dementia and it is a separate issue. I also wanted a slightly different ending, as I had guessed the majority of the ending about 60% in. With that said, I still enjoyed the ride Paul Cleave took me on. If you are in the mood for a fast read with a good twisty bit, Trust No One may be just right for you.

3.5 stars

Jerry Grey, 49 years old, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand and writes popular mystery/crime novels under the pseudonym Henry Cutter. Jerry has a lovely wife Sandra and a beloved daughter Eva. He also has early onset Alzheimer's disease, a devastating illness that will soon steal away all Jerry's memories.

In an attempt to hold on to some bits of himself as his brain deteriorates Jerry keeps a journal, addressed to 'future Jerry', detailing aspects of his daily life. These include preparations for his daughter Eva's upcoming wedding, hiding bottles of gin - and a gun - from his wife Sandra, his conviction that Sandra is sleeping with every man she meets, anger at his illness, visits from old friends, and more.

As Jerry's Alzheimer's clouds his brain he begins to confuse his real life with the plots of his books. Thus, as the story opens Jerry knows he's in a police station and thinks he's being questioned by detectives. In the interrogation room Jerry fantasizes about seducing the female detective and confesses to murdering a girl name Suzan. As it turns out Jerry has escaped from his residential nursing home and the 'female detective' is his daughter Eva, come to take him back. Moreover, Jerry is taking credit for a crime committed in one of his books.

As it turns out, people ARE being killed in Christchurch. And the murders seem to occur on days when Jerry sneaks out of his nursing home. Before long, Jerry becomes a suspect. This is one of those books where anything said about the central plot is a spoiler so I'll say no more about the killings.

Aside from that though, the book provides (what seems like) a realistic picture of the toll of Alzheimer's Disease. Told in the first person, the story jumps back and forth in time, flits from one thought/observation to another, and demonstrates the confusion in Jerry's mind. Jerry has frequent conversations with his alter ego Henry Cutter, 'wakes up' not knowing where he is, can't remember his escapes from the residential facility, doesn't recall where he lives, and so on. It's impossible not to feel bad for Jerry and to admire his struggles to leave behind some bits of himself in his journals.

There's an array of interesting characters in this page turner, and I was caught up in the story - wanting to know what was real and what was just in Jerry's mind, and anxious to discover what was going on in Christchurch.

A good psychological thriller, recommended to mystery fans.

Oh Paul Cleave, you flummox me. Cleave is a brilliant writer. He constructs a story with such wonderful imagery and dialogue. The characters are rich; especially Jerry who develops nicely throughout the narrative. He creates such suspense is dynamic switch in time and perspective. And he even makes us readers see all the sides of these characters and forces us to feel sorry and thoroughly disgusted. This emotional bender for us readers starts at the first word and lasts until the last word. All this with some timely social commentary about fiction and social media.

And this is just the writing! The plot is a crime writer is diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 49. And he starts to confess to crimes- all while some women are murdered. But his confessions sound like plots from his novels. So who is he to trust and what is a real memory?

Such strong writing about such an interesting plot should be a quick, pulse-pounding read. But Cleaver drifts a little too much at times loosing the suspense. I also found that some plot points were resolved in a confusing or convoluted manner. The ultimate end saved this book from being a 3 star ok read. It is a good read, but it lost me for many pages, which greatly disappointed me. Good, but not excellent.

This look is very clever...and very unique...and quite disturbing.
Who is Jerry Grey? Well, without question he is a husband and father and accomplished author of mystery novel.
And a serial killer.
Is he? Or is it just a figment of his deteriorating mind, a victim of early onset dementia. Which for someone in his general age group ...me...a very disturbing idea. Especially since Cleave so very believably paints the picture of what that would be like.
This is a book of twists and turns, questioning what is real and not, who can you believe when you can't even believe your own thoughts and memories anymore.
An outstanding and very memorable book, highly recommended.

As this novel opens, Jerry Grey is confessing to murder. But soon we discover this isn't the first time he has confessed. Jerry is an accomplished crime novelist with early onset Alzheimer's, and he seems to be confusing reality with his books.

As the book progresses we become as confused as Jerry, questioning what's really happened and what Jerry only thinks has happened. We are privy to his contemporary story as he occasionally breaks out of his nursing home, and the journal he started to keep the day he was diagnosed, addressed to Future Jerry in an attempt to help him remember his life once he begins to forget. There's also the occasional aside from Henry, Jerry's pen name persona. In lesser hands this might be a confusing mess, but Cleave handles all these threads masterfully, continually giving us new information that leads the reader down a merry path of dread and suspense.

This novel is thrilling and beautifully written, with fascinating characters and authentic dialogue.

It's also set in New Zealand, which makes it interesting right off. I couldn't put the book down, and highly recommend it to those readers interested in mysteries, crime suspense and "reality".

A superb psychological thriller that raises the bar for quality crime writing, then leaps over it. Head-spinning-ly brilliant.

Jerry Grey has killed lots of people. His readers thinks he's just done it in his popular crime novels, but Jerry knows the truth - he's killed people in real life too. Or he thinks he has. He might have... you see Jerry doesn't really know, because he's been stricken with early onset Alzheimer's. The cop he's confessing the crimes too isn't actually a cop, she's his daughter, visiting him in the rest home where he now lives...

Did he really just kill people on the page? It all seems so real... and when bodies start being found when Jerry goes missing from the facility...

Paul Cleave is the Crown Prince of antipodean crime writing. A New Zealand author who rivals the best in the world for his twisted tales of characters who have a pretty askew view of the world, he's a two-time Ngaio Marsh Award winner, has won awards in France, and been shortlisted for the Edgar, Barry, and Ned Kelly Awards. He's up there with the best in the business, and is quite unique and distinctive.

And TRUST NO ONE may be his best book yet. It's a fascinating, chilling, disturbing tale.

Cleave takes us deep into the confusion, anger, and frustration that Jerry feels as he's stricken by 'the Big A'. Switching between Jerry's contemporary thoughts and his 'Madness Journal', TRUST NO ONE has readers as confused as Jerry. We feel for him, and we feel like him. There's a unique usage of second-person narrative in the book, amongst the switching perspectives, but Cleave is marries it all together seamlessly. Things are repetitive at times, mimic-ing what is going on in Jerry's own life and mind.

This is superb, top-notch, top-shelf thriller writing. In a sea of 'samey' crime stories, TRUST NO ONE should jump to the top of the TBR pile for any discerning reader who loves psychological thrillers. I'd say 'one for fans of GONE GIRL or GIRL ON THE TRAIN', but that would do this book a disservice. It's unique, distinctive, and brilliant. A contender for any 'books of the year list'.

Billed as a Thriller, Trust No One, by Paul Cleave doesn't begin with a bang like so many other thrillers that grab the reader in the first sentence. One might even wonder if this book is even worth reading if a "thrill" is what the reader is looking for. Don't be fooled. By the end of the novel, you will be thinking, "Wow!"
Protagonist Jerry Grey is a well-known crime writer using the pseudonym Henry Cutter. Unfortunately, he has received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease, and his days of mental clarity are numbered. His loving wife Sandra and his grown daughter Eva care for him and work with him to try and keep his life as normal as possible while he sinks further into confusion and forgetfulness. Jerry Grey is getting more and more mixed up thinking his fictional characters are real, and perhaps they were. Maybe he actually was a killer of the victims that he writes about.
As the story progresses, the reader is carried back and forth in time according to the confused thinking of Jerry Grey who tells this as if he is living it. Is he, or is he not, a killer? Jerry doesn't think so, but is unsure as the case builds against him.
Then we meet his friend Hans whom his wife Sandra dislikes, but finds useful when Jerry needs someone to stay with him while Sandra and Eva are running around planning Eva's upcoming wedding.
After Sandra is found murdered with Jerry sitting next to her body, he is put into a nursing home miles outside the city. That is where we meet orderly and budding writer Eric. We also meet police officers who are convinced that Jerry is a serial killer.
Those readers who are familiar with symptoms and progression of Alzheimer's will begin to grasp that there is more happening here than just the disease. There are other clues also that tantalize the reader until the story picks up and takes unusual turns, yes, more than one.
Author Paul Cleave is a brilliant writer who leads the reader into the mind of a man who knows that his mental acuity can no longer be trusted, but yet must pursue every avenue to learn his guilt or innocence.

I think this one has blockbuster written all over it. Cleave has managed to put everything into one epic story, and tell it with suspense, merging several stories into one with fantastic characters, an engrossing plot, and touching on a disease that frightens most of us....early onset Alzheimer's.disease.

At the relatively young age of 49, author Jerry Grey seemed to have it all....a string of bestsellers, a fulfilling life, a family, enough money and success to live comfortably, and more of the same to look forward to. His books, written under the pen name of Henry Cutter, have been bestsellers, and when working on his 13th novel in the series, he forgets his wife's name at a party they are attending. We all have those moments of forgetfulness, and usually that's all they are. Unfortunately for Jerry, the problems become more frequent and serious, and he is soon diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. His mental decline seems swift, and within the year he is in a care facility, abandoned by his wife and left with a daughter that wants little or nothing to do with him.

As the dreaded disease ravages both his brain and his soul, he loses track of just who he was, and the boundary he had placed in his mind where Henry, his alias and the writer of gruesome murders, lives. He believes he is Henry, and the murders written in so many bestsellers are not fiction, but real cases, and people he killed in actuality. He manages to wonder away from the facility one night, and a girl is killed....in the manner of many of the "murders" he has previously and erroneously believed he committed. When the police show up at the facility, actually thinking he might be guilty of this one, the real story takes off..........at a mile a minute. This is an engrossing, well written novel, one that illustrates both sides of the coin; a man's descent into Alzheimer's and his occasional true memories coming though. A real winner, this kept me reading nonstop to the end.

"Trust No One" by Paul Cleave will be published August 4, 2015 and I sure do recommend you read it. This one was a definite five out of five star. If you have had anyone in your family or even a friend who has Alzheimer's disease then this psychological thriller is not only a great mystery to enjoy but you'll also get a real idea about what it might feel like to have this insidious disease.

Our main character is Jerry Grey. Jerry is a famous writer who writes crime thrillers under the pseudonym Henry Cutter. As Henry Cutter, Jerry has kept his readers enthralled throughout his twelve books. But now Jerry has a problem. At the early age of fourth-nine, he's just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Jerry tells all the wanna-be authors he meets to "write what you know, fake the rest". His motto becomes a problem when Jerry cannot tell what he made up and what he actually experienced. Jerry wrote exquisitely intense books about psychopaths and murder and now, as Alzheimer's slowly muddles his brain, he begins confessing to the murders that he wrote about in his books. The police, the nurses in the home where Jerry now lives, and even his daughter become Jerry's audience as he continues to confess to more and more terrible crimes.

Is Jerry really a murderer? Has he just lost his grip on reality? The reader is led on a harrowing path of misdirection, red herrings and Jerry's sheer fantasy and the trick is to try and figure out what is real and what is Jerry's terrible disease.

I found this thriller an easy way to digest the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. It really helped to connect to a likable character and try to understand what this decent into illness would be like. I would highly recommend "Trust No One" to anyone, even if you just want an intricate psychological thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. Cleave is an award winning author and that's obvious reading this book. The prose are so smooth, Cleave makes it easy for the reader to accept Jerry's "crazy" thinking. I applaud how beautifully Paul Cleave wove his mystery and he forced the reader to consider how horrible it would feel to lose one's mind slowly. Not only was this book a spectacular thriller but it also taught the reader about a disease that each of us should pray to avoid.

The fantastic, taut thriller Trust No One opens with a nasty little first chapter, in which a man confesses to a brutal murder while eying the female detective he's talking with and fantasizing about her. But as the chapter continues, we start to realize some things aren't adding up, and by the end, here's what we realize: this man isn't a murderer. He's a crime writer named Jerry Grey, and he suffers from Alzheimer's, which has caused him to begin to confuse his books with reality. That's heartbreaking stuff, and some other details in that opening chapter - him seeing his daughter, and realizing how cold she is to him, and that she only calls him by his first name, certainly doesn't bode well for their relationship - set up Trust No One as a rough read. But as the book continues, we start to realize that Jerry's innocence isn't as simple a case as we might think. Indeed, one of the many strengths of Trust No One is the fact that we're never really sure about Jerry, any more than he is. Is he a murderer, or a confused, sick man - or both? Cleave switches between Jerry's illness journal and the "current" events as they unfold in the book, allowing both to comment on the other and leave us constantly questioning Jerry's sanity and reliability as a narrator. And as things continue to spiral out of control, things get more and more complicated, and Jerry becomes less and less likely to emerge as a hero. The only real grumble I have with Trust No One is two big revelations at the end, one of which seems bizarrely out of nowhere (if it's even true, which is up for debate), and the other of which seems a little predictable. But that's forgiven for how well it's executed, and how well Cleave ties everything together in that fantastic closing chapter. Trust No One is a great piece of thriller writing, one that kept me glued to every page and constantly questioning everything that was going on all the way to the final pages. It's well-written, perfectly crafted, and absolutely tense with anxiety, and recommend it wholeheartedly.

I love mysteries and thrillers with unreliable narrators, and there is no more unreliable narrator than one suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Well, unless the Alzheimer's patient also happens to be a bestselling author of crime fiction, with all that such an imagination entails. In Trust No One, Paul Cleave continuously shifts the point of view back and forth between Jerry Grey's "Madness Journal," written in the second person to his future, even more demented self, and third-person narration of Jerry's current situation, in which he keeps escaping from his nursing home at the same time that local women are being murdered in the ways described in Jerry's novels. Is Jerry the killer? Is someone else following his book plots, and, if so, is that person deliberately framing Jerry? And by the way, Jerry's murderous protagonist Henry Cutter has started talking, too; what does that mean for Jerry's sanity? Cleave does a terrific job in keeping all of the possibilities in play to the very end of the book.

Highly recommended for fans of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, and other crime fiction featuring untrustworthy protagonists. Those with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer's should be prepared for a very realistic picture of that disease from the perspectives of both the patient and his family. Those who enjoy Trust No One should also consider reading Cleave's "Christchurch Noir" series.

I received a free copy of Trust No One through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jerry Gray is a successful crime writer who is diagnosed with early adult onset Alzheimer’s with a prognosis of quick deterioration. Jerry has already noticed some signs, forgetfulness, blocks of time unaccounted for, inability to complete his latest novel. But the diagnosis really sends him into a tailspin. He begins to write a “Madness Journal” in an attempt to preserve something of his old self, a therapy recommended to him by his doctor.

Jumping ahead to Jerry in a nursing home, his disease progressing extremely quickly (or is it?) and he starts confessing to crimes that are occurring in present time. The nurses and family assure him that he is just confusing reality with crimes that he has written about. He has some notoriety among the nursing staff, one attendant in particular, Eric wants to be an author himself and asks Jerry for tips on writing, where he gets his ideas, his characters. His suggestion to Eric is to “write what you know and fake the rest).

The narrative takes you back and forth through time which can get downright confusing when the narrator is suffering from dementia and having trouble identifying reality. The other characters, his wife, his daughter and the nursing staff are not really well developed. I found this to be frustrating as I would have liked to know more about their involvement during this entire period.

Half way through the book a new character arrives, an old friend of Jerry’s, apparently trying to help Jerry sort things out and solve these crimes which are occurring in present time. At least at this point we have a narrator, who in the end becomes part of the mystery.

All in all I enjoyed the cleverness of the plot and the good writing. I would recommend reading this in one or two sittings to hold onto the flow of the stor

A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. As always, Atria delivers "winners!"

Christchurch, New Zealand, international bestseller crime author, Paul Cleave delivers TRUST NO ONE, a deliciously clever, witty, and wickedly evil psychological mystery suspense thriller-- when the horror of mental illness--Alzheimer’s, takes over a crime writer’s brain, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. A potent blend of suspense, paranoia, reality, and pure creepiness.

A haunting tale, which could almost be ripped from today’s headlines, where we read of older adults with dementia unwittingly committing crimes like theft or trespassing, sexual acts, losing blocks of time, or worse, more serious ones such as murder with no recollection of events. For a small number--it can be a first sign of their mental decline, as studies reveal.

While Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s can provoke a neural dysfunction that affects the patient’s behavior, leading to criminality—Cleave accelerates the complexity ten-fold, by adding a bestselling crime author and its characters, to the mix.

Henry Cutter (the cutting man) is the pseudonym for bestselling author, Jerry Grey, a successful crime writer. Grey’s twelve books have earned him much success, delivery murder mysteries for years satisfying readers and fans, worldwide.

Married for twenty-four years, Sandra, his wife, forty-eight years old—he can barely now remember, and a daughter, Eva which he recalls as ten years old, not the twentysomething woman? They have a life. They have a future. He does not.

At the early age of forty-nine, the evil disease, the monster of Alzheimer’s has taken over his life. Doctor Goodstory gave him the news of the Big A, Captain A-- on the Big F (Friday). After all, dementia (Big D) is uncommon in persons under sixty-five. As he approaches age fifty, bad days are coming. Dark days are coming. Madness is approaching.

Some days Jerry is in control, and the next minute without any notice, he goes into dark mode; he has lost his car, his phone, his family, his thoughts, and his mind. Worst of all, he recalls killings; murders. Is he a killer, or is he thinking through the mind of his characters. What is real?

He now resides in an old nursing home and for some odd reason, he recalls Suzan with a “z” - always on his mind. How he felt when he killed her, back before he wrote about it. Why is his daughter acting strange? He goes back as he embraces the darkness. Who is Suzan?

Did he write thirteen books, an unlucky number? However, his thirteenth book is not a diary, but his Madness Journal. A journal for his future. Maybe one day there will be a pill to make the Big A go away. The Big A, a time bomb, tick, ticking . . . Will he will be able to look back through the pages to figure out what he missed. However, now there is a mystery to solve. The present. People are being murdered.

“The devil is in the details.” Back then the devil was him and those days, those details are hard to hang on to. His mind is wandering, it is continually doing that thing it does that he hates. “Dignity is only one of the things the Big A has taken away from him.” He is losing his marbles. Every author has a last book—however he had no clue it would be a stupid journal. His descent into madness!

“My name is Jerry Grey and it’s been five days since I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Hi Jerry. And it’s been two days since I last forgot something. Well done, Jerry.”

Flashing back from past to present, Jerry begins writing in his journal, he discovers creepy things. There was a gun. There are items hidden, possibly mementos from victims, money, the hiding place, a knife, the spray paint, and the items hidden in a floorboard? There is crazy Jerry mode and there are stages. Present, Past, and Future Jerry. Where is the journal now?

Stage one–denial, Stage two–anger, Stage three–bargaining, Stage four–grief? Acceptance–never!

Good news, if he cannot recall how his books go, he can read them if new. It would be great if he could tap in the dementia patient market—they buy his books, forget they’ve read them, and buy them again! The dementia has an awful way of rewriting your past. It is making stories from his novels feel like real life. “Write what you know. Fake the rest.”

Presently, there are new murders, and Jerry is always close by. How did he escape the nursing home? He cannot remember. Is he being set up? Made to look crazy, or is he crazy? Jerry or Henry, which one is the murderer? Or possibly neither one? Who can he trust?

Suspects: What about Nurse Hamilton from the nursing home, Hans, his best friend, who brings his gin, his wife, Sandra, his daughter, Eva; Rick his son-in-law-- the wedding, the video, the florist? The lawyer, Nicholas, the neighbor, Mrs. Smith, the orderly, or Terrace, the fan, want- to- be- writer who has purchased his old home? What happened to his house? Where is his wife? Did he kill her too? What happens when he escapes the nursing home? How does he escape? The sense he has killed somebody is too real. Whodunit? If he gets arrested, how will he use his crime-writing skills to figure out what happened?

Is he picking up his character’s dirty habits, from each of his novels, or his own evil thoughts, or actions? He has to solve this mystery. The universe is punishing him. For what? Did he happen to base his character on a live real person? Is he a convicted killer?

WOW what a ride! Cleave takes readers into the mind, fears, and darkness of his troubled confused character, Jerry—as his life unravels and spirals into a nightmare from hell. Brilliantly crafted, TRUST NO ONE is hilarious, maddening, and chilling. Unpredictable!

Even though I have read other books about Alzheimer’s, and other books about crime writers taking on identities of their characters; however, this is the first book I have read, which takes a real illness, Alzheimer’s— paired with a crime writer character, seamlessly creating a psychological horror world of madness, combining the two with a gripping day-by-day account from sanity to insanity, from past to present; Deliciously evil!

I was swooning when discovering award-winning Paul Cleave, last year after reading FIVE MINUTES ALONE, landing on my Top 30 Books for 2014 and Thriller Authors to Watch.

TRUST NO ONE is outstanding, another bestseller. Would make a fabulous movie (my prediction)… Now, the dilemma, please hurry and get all his back list on audio, (in English) as dying to read them all. I hear they are coming, so anxiously awaiting.

When I read this book back in April (holding off on review until closer to pub date), I had to tweet Cleave, about the difficulty of writing this complex book. It had to to be a total bear to write, getting into the mind of his complex character. Cleave pulls it off masterfully; with his ferocious storytelling of the highest order, with corkscrew twists and turns, holding your breath, as the evil secrets unfold. As I mentioned, to the author, if he ever gets the Big A, he can always be a standup comedian, proven he can handle the task. Please do not give up your day job, yet.

Psychological suspense, and crime mystery thriller fans will find this cleverly twisted tale difficult to put down, while laughing out loud for endless hours of entertainment. You will be left with a feeling of madness by the time you get to the twisted ending, sending you racing out the door to a medical specialist, to be tested for the lurking monster, Cleave calls the Big A.

TRUST NO ONE, has been added to my Top 30 Books for 2015!

Seriously. Paul Cleave's "Trust No One" is a genius plot. A best selling crime writer who gets Alzheimer's and then confesses that the murders he wrote about are actually real. This book combines a psychological thriller, murder mystery, mental sickness and even humor then gift wraps it in a big red bow for the reader. I purposely made myself relax and go slow while reading this book. I wanted to suck up all the goodness and enjoy the read. Because it's that good! What I really wanted to do was devour the entire thing in one sitting. But I have self control. Sometimes.

The book is told from first person point of view and flip flops between present-day Alzheimer's patient Jerry and past (via journal entries) clear headed Jerry . Because he can't be sure that what he remembers is true memories or if it is his fiction writing that is causing memories of murder, the reader gets little bits and pieces via journal entries here and there. Little nuggets of info that leave you trusting absolutely no one, including Jerry himself.

The reader goes through all the feelings Jerry does. Disbelief and sadness of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Shock and horror associated with the "memories" of the brutal murders. Confused and helpless as he realizes he isn't sure what is fact or fiction. Complete frustration when no one around him believes a word he says. Such a clever author Paul Cleave is.

This was my first Paul Cleave novel but this will definitely not be my last. I look forward to reading more books by him. 5 stars for Trust No One!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for allowing me the egalley to read and review.

Good thriller that draws on the horror that is Alzheimer's Disease. The protagonist is diagnosed with early onset AD at age 49. He's a thriller writer with a string of bestselling novels under his belt, but now he can't seem to keep fiction and reality from getting mixed up. Did he really murder that woman thirty years ago? Did he murder several other women more recently? Did he murder his wife -- his beloved wife? The only thing he can be sure of is that he shocked everyone at his daughter's wedding with a speech that expressed his most paranoid thoughts about his wife. And that was the night he killed her. Or did he? Someone did.

This really is the most unreliable narrator you can imagine. He keeps a journal but it's as unreliable as his memory. Can he trust anyone -- his daughter, his best friend, the orderly and the nurse at the nursing home?

Trust No One is realistic in that it brings out some of the less publicized aspects of Alzheimer's, the paranoia and sometimes violence that accompanies the memory loss. It would be awful enough to forget things and people, but often the sufferer also distrusts those closest to him and may even become violent or lose his inhibitions. This is what terrifies many and rightly so.

On the other hand, from what I've witnessed, one of the first things to go is the ability to read and write, even recalling words is a chore. So the idea that this character could write pages and pages of journal memories is a bit of a stretch.

Still, it kept me going and the resolution was plausible and made sense. I'll be looking for others by Paul Cleave.

"Trust No One" could become one of these books that people either absolutely love or totally hate. To enjoy this book, you need to be willing to suspend disbelief and not expect some mental health memoir, it is a psychological mystery suspense thriller. It is not just another of those unreliable narrator stories, which seem very popular at the moment, it is based on a really novel concept: the main character is a crime-writing author in his forties who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. People around him are dying. Is he a murderer? Told in alternating narratives, the past is explored through extracts from Jerry's "madness" journal that he's been keeping since his diagnosis while events in the present are revealed from a third person perspective. There's the constant question of fact versus fiction. It's a bit confusing at first, but once you get past the first couple of chapters, the story really pulls you in and turns into an action-packed crime story. While I could work out some of the twists and turns before they were exposed, there was enough of a unique plot that stopped the book from being predictable. My main criticism would be that I felt the book could have been more condensed. There were passages that seemed repetitive and didn't move the story along. Overall, it was well written though, and I enjoyed the humorous moments. The gut-wrenching ending was cleverly done and certainly not what I was anticipating. This was my first book by this author but I will be checking out some of his earlier work now. I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Mr Cleave presents us with the most unusual and commanding book to come along in many years. His principal character is an author who has written extremely successful crime novels involving murder and dark retribution by characters in the books. Jerry Grey writing under the pen name of Henry Cutter has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the height of his career and Paul Cleave picks him up while confined to a nursing home.
Jerry's memories flow in and out of reality and he believes that he has committed the crimes depicted in his books. He also believes that he has murdered his own wife with whom he is madly in love. Written in the first person Cleave takes Jerry and his persona Henry Cutter in and out of his conceptions of which crimes he has committed. Very ably done the novel has every ingredient of a first class description of a serial killer who seems to remember certain details of his crimes. He also loses his grip on these memories from time to time, and we do not know if he is indeed a mass murderer, or a murderer or innocent.
Medical staff at the nursing home he is confined to keep insisting that the crimes he recalls are memories of the situations and characters in his books and are not real. But Jerry finds more and more evidence in articles found, copies of his diary, and physical discoveries that lead him into thinking that he is a serial killer. The twists and turns in the novel's plot make doubly sure that anyone reading the book will not be able to put it down until completed. And afterward enjoy a sigh of pleasure at finding such a novel to read.

There is nothing inherently wrong with TRUST NO ONE, but there is nothing elating or enlightening about it either. Writing a novel about Alzheimer's disease is a seducing idea, but it's an ambitious and self-defeating one as it's difficult for the reader to form a good sense of who's the protagonist is and why he should care about him aside from the fact that he is sick and vulnerable. TRUST NO ONE definitely suffers from that as Jerry is a bit of a blank slate.

The book is competently written, but the plotting suffered from the constant resetting of Jerry's memory and I really wasn't all that fond of the schizoid journal chapters. TRUST NO ONE is great theoretically, in practice it's adequate at best. The best Alzheimer novel I've ever read remains ON THE BLACK, by Ed Dinger and my opinion of TRUST NO ONE was certainly influenced by that.

I was completely fascinated with this book!! What a premise! Trust No One is my first book by author Paul Cleave. It is a clever and brilliant story about crime writer Jerry Grey who has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. He is now in a nursing home and has confessed to a murder but he is informed by the nurse that he is confused, it is a scene from one of his books, he didn't actually kill anyone. Is he really a killer or is it scenes from his books he is remembering? hmmm.. That is what keeps you guessing until the very end.
This is a psychological thriller at its best! I couldn't put this book down once I started it and I found myself up until midnight last night to finish it!
Jerry starts writing in a journal he calls his "madness journal" Very clever and interesting, brilliantly written and highly recommended! The last chapter left me confused though, wait what just happened, I am still scratching my head. I also would have preferred more resolution at the end!

Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read / review this book.

My first thought about Trust No One when I finished it was Excellent!! I really enjoyed reading this novel and couldn't wait to get back to it every time I had to put it down.

How do you know that your truth, your reality is real? What happens when your memories fade or worse, what you remember clearly never happened at all.

Our main character is Jerry, a famous writer of fiction crime novels. He invents people, places, and events for a living. He is surrounded by the things of his imagination and the creations of his alter-ego writing persona.

Jerry wrestles with being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and copes by keeping a journal. His life is slowly changing and his fictional world blends with actual life more and more. Luckily, he has family and friends that help him through. Or does he?

Who do you trust when you can't trust your own mind?

This novel was quick paced and full of surprises along the way. The characters are layered and well written. Paul Cleave does an amazing job of taking us along on Jerrys journey. The reader becomes fully submerged in Jerry's twisty world. I had a hard time putting this one down.

Award-winning and bestselling author Paul Cleave writes novels that are page-turning and gripping, but his latest psychological thriller Trust No One is his best yet! It has been compared to Gone Girl, and I can see why, although they are entirely different tales for the most part. Gone Girl had two unreliable narrators and an undeniably dark undertone. With Trust No One, we have one wildly unreliable narrator in crime writer Jerry Grey, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of forty-nine, unable to tell the difference between the dark plot lines he created in his novels and real life.
In the opening chapter, Jerry is sitting in the police station after wandering away from the nursing home he now lives in. He is confused and at first he doesn’t even recognise his daughter but instead thinks she is a police officer. It’s hardly surprising that no one is interested when he claims to have killed someone – it’s clearly just a plotline from one of his dark books. But as this well-crafted book takes many surprising twists and turns, everyone must consider if he is just an increasingly confused dementia patient with an overly vivid imagination, or a monster who has killed numerous women.
Jerry is a wonderfully complex character, revealed as the storyline moves between past and present, and his deteriorating mind increasingly blurs the line between fact and fiction, reality and unreality. It’s an accomplished, highly original, and emotionally engaging read that kept me on the edge of my seat. The ending is pitch perfect, although heart-wrenching. I won’t be surprised if Trust No One wins awards, sells millions of copies and gets made into a movie. It’s that good.

Karen McMillan, author of The Paris of the East

Trust No One is my first novel by acclaimed writer Paul Cleave. It seems everywhere I look around lately there are more and more novels touching on the subject of Alzheimer's disease. I'm a nurse by profession, therefore medical/disease themes attract me quite a bit.

The book also has a great premise. This is the story of Jerry, a crime writer who also suffers from Alzheimer's disease and starts to be accused of murders which we don't know whether or not he committed. The book is written with alternating chapters, part Jerry's journal of the past (written in first person) and Jerry's journal in present day (written in third person! Yep-I know!).

Unfortunately, the novel just did not work for me. It's a slow start. The narrative is confusing and repetitive, even with the occasional twists and turns.

TRUST NO ONE is an intense psycho-thriller with a deft twist of tragedy.

Jerry Gray is a successful crime novelist with a devoted wife and a beautiful, talented daughter whose contented life is turned upside down when he is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Fearing the inevitable, Gray starts a journal as a therapeutic way to come to terms with his illness, and to help preserve his precious memories. But, as his condition deteriorates, Gray finds it increasingly difficult to separate reality from the dark fiction he has created. He begins to believe that his stories may be based on violent crimes he has actually committed...and when new murders take place, he must struggle with the possibility that there is a monstrous side to his personality that is trying to take control.

In TRUST NO ONE, Paul Cleave has crafted a superb novel of suspense which skillfully balances a clever mystery with the tragic story of a man tormented by an insidious illness. Paul Cleave is an exceptionally talented writer and I enjoyed TRUST NO ONE immensely. I very much look forward to reading Mr. Cleave's other novels!

*Free ARC from NetGalley*

Jerry Grey is an author of novels about brutal killers and worse. At 49, Jerry discovers that he has the beginnings of alzhimzer's disease. He begins to confuse reality with the characters in his novel. He ends up in a nursing home. The police become interested in him and his confusion as the police think that he may have actually done the crimes in his books. Time is running out for the police to know the truth. Jerry's friend, Hans seems to help him prove his innocence but at the same time, Hans behavior appears to not be telling the truth. What will happen to Jerry?

Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book free from the publisher. I was not obliged to write a favorable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Jerry Grey, a famous writer of murder mysteries under a pseudonym, has Alzheimer's and periodically thinks he is a serial killer. As his mind shuffles in and out of lucidity, neither he nor the reader knows what he has imagined and what he has really done. Is Jerry telling the truth? Or lying? What is real and what is a story he made up? Why does he never see his wife, who he loves so much? And if it's all his imagination, why is he carrying an earring matching the one of a girl who was killed?

The fun of this book is imagining Stephen King as a killer, since Jerry Grey feels very much like Stephen King, and even sounds a bit like him. We don't know when Jerry is telling the truth, and we're not sure when he knows either. It's a fun thriller; the Alzheimer's twist goes right to the edge of being annoying, as Jerry constantly slides in and out of sanity, but ultimately Mr. Cleave pulls it off. Great read, really well done.

Well my goodness…that was different.

What initially attracted me to Trust No One, was the book description. I’m a pretty big fan of mystery/thriller novels and I was looking for a break from the young adult/fantasy world that appeared to be monopolizing my “read” and “TBR” shelf as of late and never having read anything from author Paul Cleave before, I decided that he and this book were just the escape I needed. After reading the first few pages, I had wondered if maybe I had made a terrible mistake in deciding on this book, but after a few chapters, I was well on my way into complete book immersion, not to resurface again until I was done. I must say, that was quite the mind shtup Mr. Cleave, can’t I at least get dinner first the next time? Sheez.

A loving wife, a wonderful daughter and an accomplished career as an author, Jerry Grey has the life he has always wanted an- wait, or is his name Henry Cutter? Henry Cutter, the crime writer with 13 successful novels under his belt? No, no – that’s not right. His name is Jerry, he knows that for SURE, but he isn’t an accomplished author with a loving wife and wonderful daughter, he is a monster, a monster who committed his first murder at the age of 19, that is who he is. Or is it? Suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s, Jerry’s grasp on reality is tenuous at best, but when the police start focusing on him as the suspect of several murders in the area, based off his own confessions, Jerry has to spend the far-too-few moments that he is lucid trying to figure out if he is in fact the killer he confesses to being.

Trust No One is told from the POV of an unreliable narrator (seems to me that I have been reading a lot, a lot of these this year alone) and if that isn’t enough to cause a bit of uncertainty while reading, then the whole lot of side characters with questionable motives certainly does. I was a confused mess while reading this (not because it didn’t make sense, but because I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t). I will say that I had a pretty good idea of what was “really” happening and then there were moments that I felt like I had no idea what was happening and then the end happened and well… Let me just say that after reading this book, there are 3 things that I know for SURE:

1. Alzheimer’s is a b****
2. Paul Cleave is not lacking in the talent department
3. I still have no idea what’s going on

Let me explain number 3 a little more, lest you think me an idiot. I understand what happened in the book and I really did enjoy the book, but the ending leaves a lot of room for interpretation and as much as I enjoy using my imagination, I prefer my endings a little more black and white and with Trust No One, there was an immense amount of gray and after all the gray while reading the book, a little definition would have been really nice.

Overall though, I really did enjoy this and it was much better than I had hoped. It is a book that had me thinking constantly and surprisingly too, laughing out loud on several occasions. If I had to say anything negative about this book (besides the ending), then it would be that things tended to get very repetitive. This book could have been 50-75 pages shorter if they cut out all of the repetitive drivel and random, inconsequential material.

Happy reading, until next time…

**I would like to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.**

Review: TRUST NO ONE by Paul Cleave

TRUST NO ONE is a total rollercoaster of a novel. When I say "non-stop," I mean that quite literally. I read its 352 pages in one afternoon and evening; I couldn't look away. Reading it was like riding a runaway freight train into insanity. Everything about this book is so vivid, reading it is to live inside the minds of the characters. I was reminded of Hemingway--the prose is so sparse, yet so literary. There are multiple denouement, and each unfolds into new revelations. I kind of half-guessed at a couple of those, yet even then, the author continued to surprise me. His treatment of the protagonist' s Alzheimer's disease made me "feel" it. It also gave me deeper comprehension for instances I'd encountered in the past--more understanding and greater empathy.

I declare TRUST NO ONE to be a Best of 2015.

Jerry Grey, author of 13 best selling crime novels, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Within a short time Captain A, as he calls the disease, has turned his days into foggy memories, blank spaces where life happened without him remembering any of it, and brisk moments of reality. During one of these foggy memories Jerry remembers committing murders that he wrote about in his books.

No one believes him, but Jerry soon finds himself waking up next to murder victims or hiding bits of evidence from recent crimes. How he escaped from the home for each of these murders remains a mystery, but Alzheimer’s has so scrambled his brain that Jerry is left with more questions than answers. Is he really the murderer everyone makes him out to be, including himself, or is there more to the story?

Cleave took me on a ride that had me eagerly turning pages to find out what would happen next to Jerry. Adult readers of crime novels, mysteries, whodunits and thrillers will love “Trust no one.”

Recommended for Adults.

******SPOILER ALERT********

I was not happy with the ending, as it left me with more questions than answers. I really expected the overall mystery of what had been happening to Jerry would have been solved, and that the “bad guys” would’ve been caught. Jerry’s diary entries at the end made me even more confused as I wondered what really happened to Susan with a “z.”

Crime writer Jerry Grey, pseudonym Henry Cutter, is shattered when diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the shockingly young age of 49. He clings to the hope that he’ll be able to avoid being institutionalised – that his wife, who has put coping strategies into place, will continue to care for him at home. However, as his mind is sucked ever deeper into the murkiness of dementia, he insists that the murders in his books were real, that he actually committed them. Family, friends, and caregivers think his wild claims are all due to his worsening illness, but as strange events keep happening, doubt begins to creep in…

A gripping thriller, this novel will keep you reading well into the small hours.

The use of unreliable narrators and or protagonists are currently a popular and quite commonly utilized technique in books especially for those in the genre of suspense novels. A writer needs to be at the top of their game to write a convincing story that makes sense when using such a difficult but intriguing literary device. In his new thriller TRUST NO ONE New Zealand writer Paul Cleave has done an excellent job creating a compelling story told by a forty-nine year old mystery writer with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. What is real, what Cleave has imagined and what he has written about are hopelessly mixed up in the tangles of his mind. I would give the novel five stars if the ending had not confused me a bit though the rest of TRUST NO ONE is admirably rendered.

This was my first Cleave book and I will definitely read another, despite some disappointment with the ending.The plot was engaging, and as I progressed through the book I came to really enjoy the main character, Jerry. His sense of humor was a breath of fresh air in a story full of illness and murders. Because I was so fond of Jerry, I stayed mostly glued to the book hoping for (most of) his mountain of problems to be resolved, even in the last few chapters when it started to drag. I figured out what was going on quite awhile before the end, but was entertained enough that it wasn't really a detriment.

(non-specific spoilers follow)
I only have one major beef with this book and that's the ending. Earlier I mentioned "some disappointment" but what I really meant is it made me want to drop my Kindle and yell "Oh COME ON, Paul Cleave!" The thing about endings is they need to be happy or at least satisfying for me to enjoy them. Clearly this book wasn't going to end in happily ever after, but the last few pages made me feel like all the struggle was for nothing. If the author was going for dark, the impending deterioration from Alzheimer's would have sufficed, without that teeth-grittingly irritating final plot twist shoved in.