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Good things are going to happen.
The shower is switched off. I hear footsteps and a towel being pulled from a rack, then general bathroom noises of drawers being opened and closed. An extractor fan is turned on. I fold the newspaper up and put it back into my briefcase.
I take out the biggest knife I have and rest it on the bed. Then I take out the gun I found at my new house.
Then I take out the sandwich I brought along with me.
Adam the prison guard steps out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asks, because he doesn’t recognize me. It’s the hair—plus I’ve put on some weight.
I hold up the gun and I hold up the sandwich. “I’m Joe Optimist.”
Acknowledgments
Joe Victim is the result of a process that’s taken more than ten years, starting with a vague idea for a sequel way back when we saw one mille
The sequel didn’t progress beyond the idea of I’d like to write a sequel, and for now I’ll call it The Cleaner II, for many years. Back in 2008, two years after The Cleaner was finally published, I wrote the first 20,000 words of The Cleaner II, then no more. Of course it was never far from my mind. I kept people updated on what Joe was up to in the other books—he was in jail. He’d show up, he’d get mentioned—Joe wasn’t going to be forgotten. Then the end of 2011 rolled around and suddenly, out of nowhere, I knew it was time. The sequel went from something I’d been thinking about to something I had to do. I spent that summer inside writing, binging on junk food and ignoring my Xbox. The book took shape. It had a direction. It even had a title. Joe Victim.
Like the six books before it, Joe Victim has had many helping hands. My editor at Atria Books in New York, the wonderful Sarah Branham, always makes me think in different directions. She helps shape the novels and makes me be a better writer, and makes me want to be a better writer. Sarah rocks! As to the rest of the Atria and Simon & Schuster team: Judith Curr, Lisa Keim, Mellony Torres, A
Aside from being lucky enough to have one of the best editors around, I also have the best agent in the world. If you know Jane Gregory of Gregory & Company, then you know what I say is true. Jane is brilliant. As are Claire Morris and Linden Morris, and of course Stephanie Glencross, Jane’s in-house editor—my go-to person for all things writing and all things life.
Let me sign off once again by thanking you, the reader. Thanks again for the support, the emails, and the Facebook messages. Thanks for coming along to book signings and festivals to say hi. You’re who I write for, you’re the reason I like to make bad things happen . . .
Till next time!
Paul Cleave
March 2013—Christchurch
About the Author
PAUL CLEAVE is the author of seven internationally bestselling thrillers: The Cleaner; The Killing Hour; Cemetery Lake; Blood Men, wi
Also by Paul Cleave
The Laughterhouse
Collecting Cooper
Blood Men
Cemetery Lake
The Killing Hour
The Cleaner
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©2013 by Paul Cleave
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First Atria Paperback edition September 2013
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Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cleave, Paul, date.
Joe Victim : a thriller / Paul Cleave.—First Atria paperback edition.
pages cm
1. Serial murderers—Fiction. 2. Death row inmates—Fiction. 3. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PR9639.4.C54J64 2013
823'.92—dc23 2013005568
ISBN 978-1-4516-7797-3
ISBN 978-1-4516-7798-0 (ebook)
Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Twelve Months Later
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three