A bit of a slow start but developed into a gripping storyline. Well written. Interesting plot cantering around a miked up family and equally mixed-up protagonist. Different ending to that expected. I would recommend this as a god read.

Good story, gripping. good twists with the main character that I never expected. Kept me reading. Look foward to hearing more from Mary Watson

Thanks to NetGalley, publishers and author for an ARC of The Cleaner.

True rating 3.5 stars.
A good book with a good storyline.. I did want to enjoy it more, it is a great promise for a book, but something just didn't fully click with me to give more stars.
Recommend reading

This is a gripping thriller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish
The plot is filled with unexpected twists and turns, the writing is both engaging and suspenseful, with well-developed characters that add depth to the narrative.
The pacing of the novel is perfect, with just the right amount of tension to keep readers hooked without feeling overwhelmed.
Really enjoyable

3.5★s
The Cleaner is the third stand-alone novel by prize-winning South African-born author, Mary Watson. Why is twenty-five-year-old music teacher Esmerelda Theodora Lorenzo, calling herself Esmie, posing as a cleaner on the outskirts of an Irish university town? She has fled trauma, distress and violence in her small South American town, leaving behind a loving mother, an older brother in a coma, and a once-best-friend, now fiancée of her brother.

Almost three years earlier, Nico Lorenzo enthusiastically took up a scholarship to continue his neuroscience studies in Ireland. Six months ago, he returned, a changed person. A love affair gone wrong had seen his funding withdrawn, his dream over. But he is taciturn, won’t explain, and seeks consolation in drugs and alcohol.

Esmie manages to con her way into cleaning for three families at The Woodlands, knowing the cleaner is usually invisible. Her job gives her access to the intimate details of the three families with whom Nico was close while he was here. Her well-honed revenge plan has three stages: find Nico’s lover, learn what she cared about most, and take that away from her.

But as she probes their private lives, she discovers a lot going on behind the scenes in these apparently happy families: an academic obsessed with his wife’s dead aunt; a doctor exerting coercive control over his wife; a woman selling prescription drugs to bored housewives and students; a grieving woman determined, at any cost, to block the disposal of her beloved father’s home; and a wife who dallies with her husband’s students. There’s drugs, theft, extra-marital affairs, and blackmail.

The astute reader will soon guess that Esmie might not be an entirely reliable narrator, and that her mental state is less than stable. Watson uses flashbacks to drip-feed the back story that results in Nico’s coma state. And the reader needs to don their disbelief suspenders for a number of aspects of the plot, including how easily she falls into the job, and how a woman cleaning at least six houses manages to spend so much time snooping. And is the motive for all this really credible…? A slow-burn thriller that drags more than it should.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK – Transworld.

An interesting read with lots of twists and suspense. Some of it was a bit odd for me, but it was enjoyable.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book kept me on my toes with its dark atmosphere and twists along the way. Defiantly recommend.

Esmie is supposed to be invisible. Just a cleaner with a foreign accent that no one quite has time to place. Her uniform of leggings and a duster allows her to explore the homes of the wealthy, unseen; an outsider creeping around the edges of privilege.
But as she sweeps through the exclusive Woodlands gated neighbourhood, cleaning is the last thing on her mind. Treading silently over the polished wooden floorboards and cloud-soft carpets, Esmie gathers up the mess of broken marriages, quiet deceptions and careless failures. She tucks away their fragments, keeping them safe. For now.

I didn’t like any of the characters in this story and it seems to be overwritten. Extra sentences added to drive home a point and unnecessary. The concept is good but it didn’t work for me. It’s a slow burn that never really ignited in my opinion.

I was very excited to have received this arc as I saw so many talking about this one and the cover and name drew me in. Unfortunately this one took me a while to get into and to read as I would put it down and then leave it and come back to it. It had some good twists and I like the single narration too. Over all a good thriller but nothing mind blowing. I would be interested to see what the author writes next. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley for my copy!
I would say I enjoyed this book but I didn't find it to be anything special.
There were some good bits but overall I wasn't blown away by the twist.
Would definitely read more of their work in the future tho.

I was really excited to read this after seeing so many good reviews but sadly it just isn’t for me. I got to 37% in but I just wasn’t enjoying it. I found the main character’s relationship with her brother to be a little odd and the plot line to be slightly unrealistic. I tried several times to get more in to the book but I just couldn’t connect with it. Thank you for the opportunity to be an ARC reader for this book.

I loved the premise of this one. There's some fabulous writing and atmospheric scenery. It took me a while to get into, and I found bits hard to believe but it really picked up towards the end with a powerful, twisty denouement

Esmie is a seemingly ordinary cleaner with a hidden agenda. She finds herself in the midst of a group with plenty of dark secrets, but her own past is far more tangled. Instead of just cleaning, she’s there to expose their hidden truths and seek revenge for someone she cares about. This book is a thrilling ride, filled with intricate character motivations and a plot that keeps you guessing. The twists are sharp, and the gradual reveals keep the tension high throughout. A fantastic read that will leave you hooked until the very last page. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to netgalley for allowing me to review this book. There was plenty to enjoy in this book with twists but I couldn't get to like the characters. I felt a disconnect to the narrative overall and kept putting the book down. I think this might be because I never quite fully believed the reason behind Nico’s deterioration, the affair wasn’t convincing enough to me. I was expecting the book to get better as the chapters went on.

The Cleaner is a dark and atmospheric thriller, a story of love, obsession and revenge.

Esmie travels to Ireland to seek revenge for her brother Nico. Posing as a cleaner, she infiltrates herself into the residents of The Woodlands, believing that some of them hold the key to discovering more about what happened to her brother while he was living in Ireland before he had to suddenly return home.

What she finds is three families full of secrets, all of which she stores away as she begins to piece things together. We get to know Esmie as we travel back to learn more about her life growing up and she proves to be a fascinating if complex character. With a supporting cast of interesting if largely unlikeable characters, all with their own baggage, this is a book that keeps you guessing as you try and figure them all out. The twists keep coming until …… let’s just say my jaw hit the floor!

The epitome of a page turner, this had me hooked - Watson combines thoughtful, almost lyrical prose with an underlying tension to create a compelling read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.


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The Cleaner Mary by Watson is a domestic thriller were a Brazilian cleaner comes to investigate and take revenge on the people who caused her brother to quit his studies and return to home in disgrace.

The Cleaner is a well crafted thriller that uses its setting to examine how people are trapped in the roles that are given to them by society and how it can be difficult to break out of them. As these roles set by society are so rigid.

The writer, Mary Watson uses a single narrator to tell the story which both allows readers to understand why she wants revenge and the way that the families involved perceive the cleaner as a piece of equipment rather than a human being.

In addition the advantage of the sole narrator allows the novel to become better at hiding its twists and turns from the reader's perspective. Including accepting what the narrator says is the truth.

While the premise for the novel was interesting and carried out in a competent way by the writer. The story took a long time to deliver on its objective, meaning The Cleaner by Mary Watson while not bad is not one I would highly recommend as a must read.

Having read the synopsis for this book, it seemed intriguing and I was eager to get started.
Whilst I was reading, I was absorbed and not wanting to put it down, but every time I did stop reading, I found it hard to get motivated to start again. There were parts of the story I did find tedious. Therefore it has taken me a good few weeks to finish this book. At no stage did I consider not reading to the end, so there was obviously sufficient enjoyment to see me through, but maybe it just wasn’t quite to my taste.

On one of Esmie’s first days in Ireland, she is knocked off her bike and managed to source work as a cleaner for the driver of the car. One would assume this I was nothing more than a happy coincidence but no - Esmie has been waiting here for the person who owns the house because she needs to get inside…

Esmie is searching for her brother who returned from Ireland a broken man due to one of the inhabitants of these seemingly perfect houses. We never find out exactly where Esmie is from but through a split timeline we learn more about the tragic and terrifying events that led her here.

This is an intriguing read with a twist I didn’t see coming!

This was so good I bought the hardcover after arc reading it

'Houses know. They watch, taking in every small thing. They see when you're lonely or loved up or lying'

I couldn't put this book down!
I love the cover straight away that got me wanting to read it,
It's fast Paced and you can't wait to finish it but miss the book when it's over

Esmie is a cleaner at the gated community of The Woodlands. She works at three houses: Linc & Amber’s, Paul & Isabelle’s, and Ceanna’s.

The first two couples are married, whilst Ceanna is Amber’s sister.

As Esmie keeps cleaning, she can’t help but overhearing and noticing that all is not well and everyone is hiding something.

However, the five people Esmie cleans for, don’t know that she arrived in Ireland with one goal: revenge for her brother’s decline. Nico was living and studying in Ireland, and was Ceanna’s lodger.

Something happened at The Woodlands and Nico abruptly stopped his studies without qualifying. When he arrived back home, he wasn’t the same person. Now he is lying in a coma and Esmie is desperate to uncover what truly happened…

I liked the sound of the book a lot better than its execution, I’m afraid.

I found the characters tedious (including Esmie) and as I read so many psychological thrillers, I was able to predict the major twists.

It wasn’t for me, but it might be for you!

Many thanks to Bantam for approving my NetGalley request to read and review this title.