Thank you to Net Galley, the publishers and the author for an ARC copy for review, for an honest review.

Sadly my honest review is not a good one. One of the weakest books/story I have read in a long time.

I personally have read through some comments and reviews trying to understand if it was just me ?

I think this book will and have separated many reviewers.

Yes I can say this book was disturbing, dark, chilling, weird, shocking, but also I can say with apologies very heavy, slow and boring, too dark, too disturbing.

It lacked any likeable characters at all in the whole book, I struggled from the start with such a disturbing dark story.

I felt quite confused with a this book lacking in anything interesting in the characters or story.

I am amazed there are a few four and five stars reviews. All I can say is sorry this was not for me at all.

Just two stars only.

Grace McGill is a professional death cleaner. She is the person that the authorities call to clean up after a dead body has been found. Usually a dead body that has lain there for months before being discovered. It’s a grim job, but Grace does it with respect and fastidiousness.

Grace is something of a loner. She only seems to have passing contact with those she works with, and her abusive father. In fact, she seems to build more of a relationship with the dead people she cleans up after. Which is how she notices that several of the bodies have something in common. A daisy is near the spot where each of the corpses was found.

One particular person, Thomas Agnew, really affects her. He has lain undiscovered for 5 months, seemingly missed by no one. She collects some photos from his room, hoping to give them to a family member at the funeral, and then notices the piles of newspapers. They are all dated the same day over a period of many years. Something happened on that day, and Grace wants to know what it is.

This book was so well written - unputdownable. It threw a huge curveball as well and the twist, when it came, was totally unexpected. It was macabre, quirky and so different from anything else I’ve read recently. It really is well worth a read!

A disturbing and chilling thriller. Grace McGill has an unusual job, she cleans up when people die alone and undetected for weeks or even months. When Grace links several deaths to the disappearance of a teenage girl in 1964, she finds her own life in jeopardy. A great story with a shocking twist.

Im not 100% sure what i read. It started off okay and then jus started to fall flat so I ended up slim reading a fair amount.

I think i just wanted more. Seemed a but one level for me.
I can see this author developing as they write more.

Wow I absolutely loved this book, as a Glaswegian that has moved to England I particularly loved all the street names and places in the book The author writes about. It is a very gripping story which had me hooked I finished this in around 3 days. I read a lot from this genre and I never suspected the ending what so ever, utterly breathtaking. I will be purchasing this

Grace has an unusual job - she cleans homes when the owner has died alone and not been found for quite some time. Not many people could do that. But Grace is a very unusual lady, child of an alcoholic father who still runs her life, she has few friends and very much takes to heart the cases she is given to clean.

By her own admission she is very obsessive, and gets caught up in circumstances leading to a crime committed years ago, which she is determine to resolve. I can't really say more without giving away any of the twists and turns that abound through the book. The reader is taken on a real roller coaster of a journey, being made to feel sorry for some characters, then totally despising them in the next chapter.

The story gripped me, I really enjoyed it and did not guess what would happen next at any point.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder Stoughton for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A reclusive “death cleaner”. A 55-year-old mystery. And one hell of a story.
Absolutely raced through that book. Written in the clear voice (and thoughts) of Grace.

You can see that Craig Robertson was a journalist for a long time, his style probing, analytic and sharp. A cracking, aching, disturbing read of revelation and regret.

I’m not sure what I expected from The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill other than a (potentially) good piece of crime writing – something I read a lot and can’t every seem to get enough of. And, for the first half of the book, that’s what I got. Grace – who has the rather gruesome job of cleaning up after bodies are discovered long after they’ve passed – seems like your typical heroine. Loyal, hard-working, hard done-by. She goes unnoticed in life, just like the people she cleans up after – even when she tries to tell the police that there is something strange in the death scenes she is being sent to.

Then, just over half-way (at 62% to be precise – I read this on my kindle), there is a twist in the tale that turns everything you think you’ve been reading on its head. I won’t say what it is (spoilers) but it takes what was feeling like a nice, pleasant, slightly sleepy, read, into something much more interesting. I was reminded, in a way of I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh – that lulling of the reader into a false sense of security before hitting you in the face with something that seems obvious.

So, the twist is why I liked this book as much as I did. But I also enjoyed reading about Grace and how she comes into her own as the book progresses. And I liked the writing style. There was something ‘easy’ but not typical in C. S. Robertson’s style. It’s this type of thing that keeps me reading crime fiction / mystery / suspense. Because when it’s good, it’s hard to beat. And that was the case here. 4.5/5 stars (just because of one scene that didn’t sit ‘right’ with me and which took me out of the book for a little while - otherwise it would have been 5 stars).

This is one of my stand out books i have read so far this year. I was completely hooked on this! couldnt read it fast enough, but at the same time didnt want it to end! very clever, very well written. Everyone needs to read this!

This book caught me completely off guard. I had no idea what to expect but loved this twisted novel. I was never able to figure out what was going on and could not put it down.
This is the story of Grace McGill, a single woman with a cat, and a cleaner. Her specialty is cleaning up the remains of the dead, which entails cleaning up the clutter left behind and sometimes cleaning up the body. (I don’t know if this a job?”) She also has a very unusual hobby: she creates dioramas of all the death scenes she works on.
“It’s my job. I’m a lonely death cleaner. It’s smelly, it’s sad, it’s messy, and it’s dangerous.”
The novel opens with Grace off to clean up Thomas Agnew, an older man who had lain undiscovered for over five months. As she is cleaning up, she studies a photo she finds in his room, hoping to somehow honor his memory. The photo shows Thomas in his youth with a group of friends, and she begins to investigate his life, leading to much more than she anticipated, including putting herself in danger when she uncovers a cold case involving the death of a young girl.
The story is full of twists I never saw coming, introduces us to her abusive father, and ratches up the tension right to the last page. I highly recommend this stunning read! Thank you to the author, publisher, and #NetGally for my arc of this book.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (plenty of others like that out there already).

Hmm. I'm in two minds about this book - I enjoyed it on one level, but it made me feel very disquieted on several others! I couldn't fault the writing, the meticulous research that must have gone into it, the characters, or the multi-stranded gripping plot.

I guess my misgivings are due to the way it made me feel - without giving away the plot, the possibility that there might be people like Grace out there disturbed me no end! Still it's a sign of great writing when a book affects you like that, so all credit to the author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

What an unexpected gem this was.
I went into this one expecting a standard mystery/ thriller with the focus on the cleaning of the death scenes.
Instead I got a really original book with excellent twists.

The beginning was more focused on Grace, the main character giving insight into her personality and her work cleaning houses after people had died and been undiscovered for weeks and sometimes months. I was particularly interested in her work and how it affected her. The comments on society and how we don’t notice the lonely people was particularly touching.

Grace as a character was complex and even though some of the choices she made and the things she did were questionable to say the least. I really felt for her and could understand why she did what she did. The writer also did a good job of describing Glasgow and other parts of Scotland which gave the book a great sense of place.

The twists in the plot around halfway and at the end of the book were fantastic and really added to the story. I would definitely read more by this author.

This book isn’t for everyone as the ending isn’t a happy one but it was definitely an unusual and well written mystery/thriller.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of the book in return for an honest review.

When people die alone and undiscovered, it's her job to clean up what's left behind - whether it's clutter, bodily remains or dark secrets. When an old man lies undetected in his flat for months, it seems an unremarkable life and an unnoticed death. Grace McGill is a cleaner, but no ordinary one. She cleans the houses of people who have died in their homes weeks, sometimes months before.

This is a cleverly written book that has a great twist around the halfway mark. The pace is a bit slow, to begin with, but it soon picks up. This is a gripping tale with a sad ending but worth sticking with.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton for the electronic copy.

My Goodness - what a unique story! I'm sure we're familiar with the work of pathologists, police etc, but what of the person who is contracted to go into the houses of people who have died (once the body is removed) and do a thorough clean-up - especially if they had lain undiscovered for lengthy periods of time? Well, Grace McGill is that person and I must say it was interesting to read about the complexity of the work involved. However, Grace goes way above and beyond her duties; she takes lots of photographs of the relevant rooms as she encounters them; selects personal items to try and return them to any relatives - and she also selects the odd memento for herself - a reminder of who that person was.
But Grace is a lonely person. She has her cat George and spends time on-line chatting to people, and from her photographs she spends time creating miniature replicas of the death rooms - art therapy to counteract the nature of her work. In between she battles visits to her obnoxious alcoholic father who never fails to undermine her.

After one particular clean-up she comes across a photo of five young men, together with a hoard of newspapers which all cover the same period of time but spanned 50 years. She begins her own investigation into why they had been kept and stumbles across the case of a missing girl. What's the connection? She even attends the man's sparsely attended funeral and gradually puts two and two together. She begins a dangerous journey to find out what happened one holiday weekend, but someone anonymously begins to threaten her to stop. What secrets are being kept?
After all, Grace has secrets of her own - she has the best of intentions - her heart seems to be in the right place - but is her Head?

There is a twisty storyline which makes the reader want to keep turning the pages. It's warped and macabre but also highlights social commentary on how people can die alone with no-one looking out for them.

Fascinating Read.

Wow. This book is an unexpected gem. Grace works as a specialist cleaner. She cleans properties where people have lain dead for many weeks or months. Biohazard cleaning really. Unpleasant but it gives her a sense of purpose.
Grace lives alone with only her cat for company. At one property where she is cleaning she becomes intrigued by the occupant and drawn into a mystery, the disappearance many years ago of a seventeen year old girl. From an old photograph Grace begins to piece together what may have happened and she sets out to prove it. So many twists and turns. A thoroughly enjoyable book

I absolutely loved this book, which is one of the most original and interesting books I have read in a long time. Grace cleans the homes of people who have lain dead for long periods of time, and she always feels a close connection with those people who had nobody to notice they had died. Then, she starts to feel there is something sinister linking some of the deaths when she notices a daisy where some of the bodies had lain. Highly recommended.

Grace McGill’s job is not for everyone. Grace goes into properties to clean up after a person who has died has been discovered after a period of time. It is difficult to imagine what that is like but the author leaves nothing to chance that you will not understand the mess and the sadness of the situation. If a body has been undiscovered for many months is can be quite horrendous. The majority of the people who die alone are ones without family and possibly not known by their neighbours as if they were old they were not seen out. A very sad situation we all live in. Grace is not a happy person, her father causes her so much stress as he can be very demanding and vindictive. Grace has been cleaning homes wheh she sees a pattern emerging and she feels that there may be foul play at work. She tries to get the Police involved but the think it is all in her mind. She decides to get involved herself to try and solve the drama as this channels her thoughts in a different way from her own life and her father’s nonsense. As she looks into the cases it becomes more complex. While cleaning a house she finds newspapers for the same day and month each year which baffles her. The newspapers leads Grace to come across a story of a young girl who disappeared many years ago and was never found. She follows the story and finds that some of the deaths she has cleaned up may be involved in the disappearance. The story continues, twists and turns and Grace gets into some trouble but she does not give up her quest. She eventually comes to a conclusion and the end of the story was completely unexpected and the book keeps you gripped as when you are reading the book you need to know what happens – the end was a shock – great read

Hugest of thanks to the awesome publicity team at Hodder and Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read 'The Undiscovered Deaths Of Grace McGill', one of the most powerful novels I have read this year. Certainly with the most endearing and dogged heroine-she may be the last witness to the dead whose houses she cleans, but she will likely linger in the minds of all who read about her life.

She moves through her position in life with an acknowledgement of, but never a sense of pity about her isolation from main stream society.

In fact, it is her unique status as an outsider, who cleans the houses of the undiscovered dead, that affords the time and space to recognise patterns where others do not

Her meticulous eye for detail is replicated in mini dioramas that she makes of the scenes of death. She never includes the body, and has been very careful to make them specific, but not recognisable.

So when she notices a small,but crucial similarity between two deaths , she not only has to work out how to process it, but how to alert the proper authorities. And when the same detail pops up in a third death,it is time to step outside her comfort zone and be brave.

But how can she do this without bringing danger straight to her door?

What I loved about the book is not just Grace's narrative voice, which takes you so close to the streets of Glasgow that you feel that you have visited there, but the pervasive sense of mystery.

There is a darkness and depth to the job which Grace does, but it is the society that has left these people to literally vanish in plain sight until an unavoidable consequence-olfactory assaults, leaking bodily fluids, unpaid bills and so forth-alerts the moving world to its static inhabitant.

The sadness I felt at the notion you could die without ever leaving any impression in this world ,especially in Covid times, was tempered with the determination that Grace has to deliver dignity after death to each of her clients.

She has been left with an ungrateful, demanding, alcoholic father and a job in the shadows of what is generally considered a less than desirable position for a woman. However,her tenacity and ability to see outside the norm is a gift, and she is ruthless in her pursuit of the truth. It is impossible to forget her.

As an aside, I absolutely loved diving down a rabbit hole into the world of murder dioramas and how they were used to advance forensic science, it was fascinating and I would highly recommend looking into it

This mystery was compelling and engrossingly cleverly written, Grace’s doesn't shy away from solving a mystery.
It's a gritty and takes on an even darker tone about halfway through when we discover more about grace, the story is both gripping and highly entertaining. with a twist that was unsettling yet satisfying.

Grace owns her own cleaning company, Last Wish Cleaning. This company cleans up the homes of people who have died alone and have then been undiscovered for a period of time. Grace gets a job to clean the home of a man who's life stands out to Grace. Everyone has a story and Grace will not give up before she gets the answers she is after.

Grace as a character is extremely likeable. She lives on her own with her cat in her flat in Glasgow and that is how she likes her life to be. She comes across as timid to begin with but as the story unfolds the character development is stunning and you really get to know the more ruthless and determined side to Grace.

The writing style was wonderful and it really gets you gripped form the get go. I loved how the author made Grace's voice extremely clear by including a lot of her internal thoughts throughout as I really felt like I was a little person inside Grace's head at times!

Overall, this is a twisted, dark, thrilling and gripping novel with a very original premise and I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!