This book was an enjoyable read, though it never truly completely gripped me. I enjoyed Grace as a character and loved the twists and turns of the book, especially how they were revealed slowly over the course of the story unfolding. I did enjoy that the plot had twists that I did not see coming despite how much crime fiction I read. However I found this book more of a slow-paced thriller and it did not have me hooked to the stage where I could not put it down. This book was unlike anything I have ever read before and Grace definitely was an intriguing character, I enjoyed being inside her head. I have seen lots of great reviews for this book, so if you do enjoy slowed-paced crime fiction, it may be an enjoyable read for you. Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this book but I just could not get into it at all and while I do enjoy reading a good crime book, this one was just a bit too odd for me to fully get into/enjoy.

This is a tricky one to put my thoughts down about.

I sped through the book and it had my attention from the start. I did find the second half went a bit predictable and there is some content that a sensitive reader may struggle with but overall I enjoyed it.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to @hodderandstoughton and @netgalley for a #gifted advanced digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it was completely different and unique to anything else I have read. This is your typical murder mystery but there are strong connotations of loneliness and isolation.

There are definitely grisly and gorey details which are to be expected when the main character cleans the homes of those who have long been deceased and unnoticed. Of course I loved all the descriptions!

I did feel that the book slowed down towards the middle, but ultimately the ending made up for it. One I wasn't expecting nor prepared for.

4-4.5 stars
Warning - If you are squeamish you may want to give this a miss, the begining of this book contains hiddeously graphic details of post mortem bodily fluids and decomposition, even I was gagging at the thought!

I loved the writing style, the wonderful descriptions of the settings of this story (particularly Bute), the characterisation and the clever progression of this book, peeling back revelations of Grace's story; she's an odd, somewhat quirky, lonely woman with a truly unpleasant but essential job, then her darker side joins the narrative. What is the meaning of her obsessive crafting hobby and what is the significance of the objects on her special shelf?

When Grace becomes obessessed with trying to solve the mystery clues left by of one of her 'clients' she herself becomes a target - but who wants to shut her up, and why?

After a few chapters this book really picks up speed and tension, moving from a slow paced, quirky (if somewhat gruesome) read to a thrillingly gripping mystery, with a really clever plot and some surprising twists. A wonderfully different book which I really enjoyed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give my honest opinion of this book.

Despite the disturbing nature of this story, it is a gripping grisly read with touches of poignancy. Grace takes her work seriously and is determined to do her best for the dead people she clears up after. Mystery and psychological suspense give the plot many twists, some of which are devastating.
Grace draws the reader's empathy because her motives are pure. Her loneliness is poignant and resonates, as does the story's uniqueness.

I received a copy of this book from Hodder and Stoughton via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Grace has unusual job, she cleans up after people who have been found dead in their homes after weeks or even months! She is a sad soul who lives alone with only her cat George for company! She takes the occasional trophy from the homes she cleans but then discovers a dried up daisy on a pillow left by one of her deceased - it rings a bell! There has been a previous daisy! She is asked to go and clean the flat of a man who was not discovered for months! She finds fascinating photographs in his home, attends his funeral and meets two unlikely figures who knew the man, she recognises them from the photographs but they deny all knowledge! She’s intrigued and begins her own detective work! There’s a missing woman from the sixties, another daisy and she’s being followed! It’s a tale well told, the characters all carefully drawn and credible. I would like to be able to say I enjoyed the story but I found it all rather depressing and sad!

What a fascinating idea for a book. Glasgow-based Grace McGill is a forensics cleaner who handles scenes where people have died but have not been found for weeks or months. This involves a specialised thorough cleaning system which Grace shares carefully for the reader, taking pride in her work. It's interesting and I was hooked. She also worries about the loneliness of the people whose houses she cleans and wants to know more about them as every person has a story to tell. At home socially awkward Grace makes detailed dioramas of the scenes to process the deaths and remember the people. We slowly get to know Grace and her troubled childhood. But about halfway through the book moves in a different direction and as one realises she's an unreliable narrator sadly it went from a four-star read to a three-star for me. The change felt awkward and the book became less engaging for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a strange read for me. I finished the book in practically one sitting, I breezed through the writing, the plot was engaging, I enjoyed the twists and turns, but it never really got my heart rate up and I was never truly invested.
The experience of reading the book was enjoyable, I just never really cared about the main character and therefore didn't really care what happened to her. A lot of the actions of the main character didn't really make sense to me, her thought process and the journeys and traveling she did didn't really compute with me.
So over all it was a good interesting book, a little different ut unfortunately i did not feel any connection to the main character or really care,

Grace deep-cleans houses after human remains have been found in them. Her work is specialised and gruesome. She lives a lonely life with just her cat for company, and regular visits to her drunk, abusive father. But then Grace discovers a strange link between some of the people she has had to clear up after - deaths that seemed to be natural causes, but now perhaps they aren't. Perhaps something else is linking them.

I was enjoying the story, but then about halfway through it went down a path that I really hoped it wouldn't go, because it seemed too obvious. It's a very weird and dark story, and while Grace is a memorable and quirky narrator, ultimately I think it was all a bit too strange for me to enjoy, even if it was a well-written story.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I really enjoyed this truly unusual book. Engrossing and well written with an engaging main character, this book ticks a lot of boxes. Caught my attention from the beginning and had plenty of twists and turns to keep me reading. Highly recommended!

It’s been a while since I requested this one and the goodreads synopsis is quite sparse so I didn’t really know what to expect going in- and I was definitely not expecting what I got! Grace McGill is such a nuanced character, with a sad, lonely life she spends deep cleaning death scenes. After cleaning one such room she becomes entangled in a decades old mystery and the story unravels from there.

I love stories like this where an old cold case is dredged up and solved, and this did not disappoint. Secrets and mystery and plot twists abound and I really could not have predicted how it was going to go. Thoroughly enjoyable all round.

Original, thought provoking and a dark read taking you on a rollercoaster mystery read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

Well I have to say that I have never read anything quite like this before. It was a very unusual plot and I found some things quite fascinating.
Grace was not all she seemed and she was a complex character with fixed views on life.
I enjoyed the book very much and found it any easy read

A very interesting story that got me hooked from the first page.

Grace cleans the houses of people that have died and haven't been found for months. She lives alone with her cat as her only company and nothing really seems to happen until she cleans the house of an old man with some secrets to hide. She starts unravelling the story and with it, the book starts unravelling the complex character that is Grace.

I loved the big but subtle twist halfway through; it's been a while since I've been surprised by a plot twist and it felt good to be left to my mouth open. The ending is also so perfect for the story but the only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because it lost me a little towards the end. The chase that Grace was on kind of lost speed for me and it lost my interest a bit but that was only for 10% of the book; the rest was all amazing!

I hope this book gets the fame it deserves as it's dark, complicated, sad and at times scary. It guarantees an emotional roller coaster that makes reading such an enjoyment!

Grace McGill has the unusual job of cleaning the houses of dead people. The job is gruesome as they’ve usually been dead for quite some time.
She becomes curious about the mysterious disappearance of a young woman in the 1960’s after discovering a connection to more than one of her “jobs”. However, somebody doesn’t want her the solve the mystery.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it kept me guessing all the way through. I certainly wasn’t prepared for what was revealed along the way.

I knew I absolutely had to read this book when I read the blurb. It sounded amazing and the concept totally original. I thought the book would have supernatural elements and that Grace was some kind of spectral figure. I was a little disappointed when I discovered this wasn’t the case. However, I soon got over my disappointment because the book is so gripping and I loved Grace’s voice as she tells her story. I thought this was a terrific read if not exactly as expected.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.
The information provided describes Grace's very specialised work and the book begins with Grace telling us that she says prayers, lights candles and places flowers by the bed showing her compassionate nature. As the story unfolds we learn about the dioramas she creates, seemingly as a memorial to the dead person. Then ... things turn rather darker and the reader wonders what drives Grace as she tries to uncover the truth behind a young woman's disappearance many years ago. The story was interesting and well-told with twists right up to the final pages that demonstrate a very clever plot. However the subject matter and events will not be to everyone's taste, it is definitely somewhat disturbing; a warning in the publisher's information would probably have led me to avoid choosing it as a book to read.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is a dark psychological thriller by C.S Robertson.
In short, we follow Grace McGill from Last Wish Cleaning, her own company specialising in cleaning up after people that have died alone and we also get to learn Grace’s back story.
I thought this story had so much premise and although we had the expected twists and turns, it was just too slow for me and found myself losing interest at times. I am definitely in the minority though as this book has had rave reviews.
Big thanks to C S Robertson, Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for this eARC which I chose to read in return for my honest review.

I’ve never thought about who does the job of clearing a place after someone dies with no family. In this book it’s Grace. Grace has an unusual ‘hobby’ which I will not spoil by writing it. Grace is an unusual character and I loved her! Give this book a go. It’s really interesting and will leave an imprint on you for a while after.