Paul Cleave wrote The Cleaner in 1999. He finally got it published in 2006. The first-person tale of a serial killer preying on the women of his hometown of Christchurch – but with a twist or three – kicked off an international career of crime novels, which has made him, by some estimations, New Zealand’s most successful book writer.

The television series of the book, which he also wrote and which is backed by major US screen production company Lionsgate, is finally heading to our screens and wherever it can be sold overseas. Based on the first in Cleave’s interlaced nine-book “Dark City” series, Dark City: The Cleaner has been in stop-start development for seven or eight years.

That’s a long time for a writer who clearly prides himself on being fast – once he finally got the green light two years ago, he wrote the six episodes in twoon high rotate on his stereo.