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A survey once found Christchurch to be considered one of the friendliest as well as one of the most violent of cities.
It's a finding that crime writer Paul Cleave, a born and bred Cantabrian, has woven into his novels.
His latest, Cemetery Lake, is due to be released today and it follows his other grisly tales, The Cleaner and The Killing Hour. All are set in Christchurch and all centre on serial killers and their diabolical crimes.
The 33-year-old said that he loved the city, but was troubled by recent violence that resulted in it being nicknamed the murder capital of New Zealand.
"It's such a nice, laidback city. It's just a shame that it is getting quite violent."
His books might not do anything to lighten that reputation.
"It all comes down to creating an atmosphere I guess. I know Christchurch isn't that bad, but if people are reading a crime book they want to be encompassed by a city that does have a spooky feeling about it."
He admitted to exaggerating the city's violent reputation, but said it was done only to make the book more entertaining.
"I think if you were setting bad things in a really nice city and describing it beautifully the whole time it's just going to be too big a contrast."
So far no one from Christchurch's tourist industry has too much of a problem with Cleave's portrayal of the place, but he says some reviewers have said, "Well he's really going to kill the tourist trade".
But chances are German visitors will still be keen to visit the city.
Cleave's first book, The Cleaner, was the top-selling crime thriller last year on Germany's Amazon website. Amazon.de in
Cleave developed his "somewhat bleak view" of Christchurch when he worked for seven years in the pawnbroking industry. Many of his characters were inspired by the some of the customers he had to deal with, he said.
"We dealt with some people who were different from mainstream people that everyone else deals with.
It was hard. I got threatened a lot by customers."
He said he encountered desperate and aggressive people, and many with obviously stolen goods - with whom who he refused to deal.
"I know people have these assumptions about pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers, but it's absolutely not that way."
Cleave said he had been punched and had rocks thrown through the shop windows, but the ultimate reason he decided to leave the business was because of a "credible" death threat directed at him.
"The guy said to me the one thing I never wanted to hear, and that was, 'I have nothing to lose by coming back and doing it. All that will happen is I'll go to jail and I'll catch up with my friends; it won't be a problem'.
"And I thought, 'It's time for me to go'."
Fortunately, by that point Cleave was getting some interest in his writing and, as becoming a writer had been a lifelong dream, he decided to turn his hand to it full-time.
"I left the job and I have technically been unemployed since, for eight years."
Becoming a writer was hard for Cleave. He was not eligible for a benefit and had to sell his house.
"It was either that or get a job, and I really didn't want to get a job. I really wanted to chase this dream.
"It was definitely worth it."
He rubbished the notion that violent books or movies exacerbated violence in society.
"I think that's just bullshit to be honest.
"Nobody like you or me is going to wake up one day and read a crime book and think, 'You know what, that sounds great. I'm going to do that'. It just doesn't happen.
"The people who do do that are already wired up wrong, and have already predetermined that they would commit a crime anyway."
And Cleave said he never went into great detail about how crimes in his books were committed.
He said he spent a great deal of time researching serial killers, but had to look overseas for his information as New Zealand has never had one.
"Everything I read was FBI-based and how they profile serial killers and that definitely gave me a lot of information ."
His research enabled him to write The Cleaner from the viewpoint of the mass murderer Joe - an experience he described as fun.
"I got to just sit there at the keyboard and be 'Evil Paul' for a few months."
But he was a bit worried about how his mother would react to the persona, and he had to deal with his best friend's wife, who thought there was something wrong with him.
But he said descending into the role of Joe did no long-term harm to his psyche.
Cleave is working on his next novel and hopes to have it completed in the next few months.
While no details are available, it is probably safe to assume another depraved killer will emerge from the dark, cold, violent streets of Christchurch.
- NZPA
