A Killer Harvest

By Paul Cleave

Published by Upstart Press

Reviewed by Jessica Macfarlane, Editor

I've just finished reading the new Paul Cleave book A Killer Harvest. It was a really good read, and had me hyperventilating by the end, unable to suppress the ‘No! No! No'! as the tension ratcheted up.

The major conceit is the topic of “cellular memory” which is the idea that memories can be retained in transplanted organs.

Joshua is a 16 year old blind kid with a tragic past. We “see” the first part of the story through his view point of hearing, touch and smell.

In a not too distant future reality where eye transplants are possible he gets the gift of sight, but at a cost. Due to a mix up at the hospital he ends up with an eye from his dad who was a cop, and an eye from a killer. As he dreams cellular memory kicks in and images from the last moments of both men appear to haunt him.

As a skeptically minded person I actually had to push myself past the irksomeness of that idea to give the book a chance. To me this is akin to the ability of homeopathic medicine being able to actually do anything.

However, the book is much more than that, and suspending disbelief, one is plunged into a gripping read that is enjoyable in its detail of a familiar Christchurch setting, and disturbing as a window into the world of an unhinged killer.

It is a book that is very much in the same vein as his other outings in the crime/thriller genre, with a switching point of view from criminal, to victim to police and back, ripping you away from one view point just when what you are about to see is getting knuckle bitingly tense. It shocks you with blood and pain.

The book also brings up important moral dilemmas around availability of organ transplants by showing us how far some characters would go to procure the organs.

This book is a gripping read, its heroes are three dimensional, likeable, hateable.

I would definitely recommend it.

Q & A with Paul Cleave

Note: The following are excerpts from emails between the Editor and Author.

From Jess Macfarlane:

Hi Paul,

“So first of all - I realise you don't want to alienate your audience who may or may not believe in cellular memory, but, can you confirm if you do believe in that stuff?

What kind of research did you do on cellular memory when you were writing the book?

Did you come across a movie about it called Transplanting Memories made by Dunedin based company Natural History New Zealand (NHNZ), and if so what did you make of it?

Also, It would be interesting to know if you are an organ donor yourself, and if you support the idea of making organ donation an 'opt out' choice as they have done in other countries, rather than an 'opt in' one as it is here in NZ.

I realise your book is fiction and could have dragons or fairies or flying spaghetti monsters or anything as a part of its world, but I was also wondering if you had considered going in a different direction, and have cellular memory as a device but not being a real phenomenon. What I mean is the alternative where Josh or other characters think it's the cellular memory making them do things or think things, it but it's actually just their own flexible unreliable memories, suggestibility, or them using it as an excuse consciously or unconsciously to do things that are 'out of character'. That would mean exploring what happens when people do things based on a lie...and then what happens when their eyes are opened to that lie.

Cheers, Jess.

Editor, NZ Skeptics

From Paul Cleave:

Hey Jess,

Nice to hear from you. Sure - I don't mind answering some questions. But - spoiler alert - I don't actually believe in cellular memory. I understand the theory behind it - but until the day doctors or scientists can come along and say ‘this person here inherited this other person's tastes in wine' then I'm not going to believe it.

... don't tend to give closed answers as I'm about to here - but I'm going to because I suspect it might not head in the direction you were thinking it might go.

But - basically… as far as research goes, I did very little - just enough to see the theory behind it, and how the memory is ‘stored in all cells' - but nothing to prove that was the case. Nope - I haven't seen that film, or heard of it, but it does sound interesting. And yes, I am an organ donor… but, from memory, I think I declined to donate my eyes. Of course it's a long time ago I made that decision - I would have been 16 - but from memory I think that idea of that creeped me out.

And yes - I did think of searching for a way to have the book work where it isn't actually cellular memory, but it just wasn't going to line up that way - so rather than try and shirk around it a little, I just owned it. What you said there, it's an idea I've had for a while now - it wasn't going to work with AKH, but it might in another book - where you think one thing, only to find out it's another - like the vampire is actually just a guy dressing up as one and biting people…

Cheers! Paul.