Great book with plenty of twists and turns and a surprise ending. You will not be disappointed. Fans of Shari Lapena will love this one.

This book was brilliant, I could not put it down and read it in one sitting, the twists and turn, you think you know what is going to happen and then you read you were wrong, yet another twist is added and you don't know how the story is going to end. Superbly written and I would definitely recommend

I loved this! I feel bad for everyone who has to wait until 2025!!

The characters, you don’t like most of them, which is unusual to not really like anyone! But the story is great, twists and turns. Misdirections everywhere!

The setting is beautiful!

Esmie travels to England to find out what happened to her lover Nico. As she poses as cleaner on the estate that her loved one died in, She begins her investigation into what happened. Will she be content with the results? The cleaner is a wonderful thriller to enjoy. The Spiderweb of lies that gets cleaned by the cleaner, It will keep you guessing throughout. An enjoyable must-read thriller!

I was quite disappointed with this book.
I was expecting a tense, gripping thriller. Unfortunately for me it didn't deliver.
I found it a bit repetitive.
When the cleaner is in the house looking for evidence, she is doing it when the owners are in. I was just waiting for her to be caught.
It just didn't add up.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House uk for the ARC in return for an honest review.

The Cleaner by Mary Watson

A really good book . You have to trust that your cleaner is not there to riffle around your bits & bobs or to find out the stuff you would prefer to keep hidden. She has a reason for that though , it's just not for the reason they are expecting.
Enjoyed it.

Im this revenge thriller, Esmie sets herself up as a cleaner for three wealthy households in an exclusive Irish cul-de-sac near the woods.
It started well, and intriguingly, but I found neither the plot nor the characters engaging. I couldn't' empathise with any of them, least of all the narrator, and struggled to finish.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance reader copy of this debut novel.

The Cleaner is a clever and addictive revenge story. We follow Esmie who poses as a cleaner to uncover the truth about her brother’s death in Ireland. As she infiltrates the homes of the people who knew him, she soon learns that everyone is hiding secrets and she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if that means destroying everything and everyone in her path.

I could not put this one down, it had me consumed with what was really going on. Was I being told the truth or was more going on then meets the eye. If you love domestic thrillers then this one needs to be on your radar in 2025!!

Esmie, the narrator is described several times as having a 'cold, black heart.' This phrase describes the book for me. She has come to Ireland to seek revenge for her brother Nico who seems to have fallen in love with one of three women. Isabelle, Ceanna or Amber. As a result he has lost his scholarship and been sent home in disgrace.

What I liked about this book: Not much, I'm afraid. .It livened up a little towards the end,

What I didn't like about it: The characters didn't appeal. Each and every one of them was horrible, whether it was Esmie with her whining about her brother, or the three women, rich and self obsessed ignoring the cleaner, or Linc and his creepy obsession with a dead poet. Not one of them was sympathetic. The plot was somewhat ludicrous with an unlikely twist near the end.

I just didn't enjoy this book at all. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC,

This is a powerful and intriguing novel, which really does keep the reader guessing until the very end. Esme is determined to find out who was her brother, Nico’s, lover. Three women are possible candidates, Amer, Isabelle and Ceanne, so she conspires to obtain a job as a cleaner for the three neighbours in the hope that she will discover the identity of the mystery woman and avenge Nico. However, searching for clues is not as easy as she had hoped. Despite this, she does draw her own conclusions from the evidence uncovered and plots her revenge. The reader is given glimpses of Nico’s past and his relationship with both his sister and his fiancée, Simone. Clearly, there is no love lost between Simone and Nico’s sister, Esmerelda. A further complication is Esme’s similarity to a dead poet, Eden, with whom Linc, Amber’s husband, is obsessed. There are so many themes and sub plots within the novel, which keep the reader’s attention until the closing sentences. A well written and skilfully constructed novel.

This is a brilliant novel from Mary Watson!
Many of us employ a cleaner and offer them access to our homes and therefore our lives, but what happens if the cleaner isn't who she appears to be and has a grudge to settle.
Highly recommended.

The Cleaner - Mary Watson
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Revenge could be small and petty, a sign of moral weakness. Or it could be majestic, biblical: a grand retribution, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

The Cleaner follows Esmie as she intercepts the Woodlands gated neighbourhood as a cleaner. But she’s after a different kind of dirt on those that live there. In a desperate search for revenge, Esmie finds herself with more secrets than she can handle, muddying the real reason she’s there.

The Cleaner is Mary Watson’s debut adult thriller and it is a very compelling and immersive read. It is told from one perspective across two timelines, and I found myself gripped as the past caught up with the present with each chapter I read.

Every character has flaws and some are extremely dislikable, so you find yourself rooting for Esmie and her reasons for wanting revenge. Esmie’s unhinged and morally grey behaviour reminds me of Millie from Freida’s novel The Housemaid, and I do think fans of that series will enjoy this book too.

I will say, there are a lot of characters to get your head around which took me a minute to get used to, but once I’d worked out who was who, I was okay.

The plot itself was complex and intricately written. The drama built up beautifully and chaotically to a twist I did not see coming. The book radiates jealousy, tension and manipulation - making this is a thrilling read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Mary Watson, Random House UK and Bantam Books for sending this advanced copy of The Cleaner in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you really know your cleaner? Esmie was not here to clean other peoples houses, she was here for revenge for Nico. But who is the real Esmie?

Good style of writing, dark and at times unputdownable. Lies, cheating, lovers and expense accounts, do they make you happy, or just prone to boredom?

Good debut novel.

The cleaner is a book about of lies, secrets, manipulations, how revenge is best served cold, and how those that can hide in the shadows and observe, should not be underestimated; it's always the quiet ones! It's a slow start as we are introduced to how the main character Esmie became a cleaner for the characters that she would then secretly study, and I'm afraid I was unable to finish it. With thrillers, I prefer short snappy action-packed chapters, rather than where the plot is trickle-fed to help develop character dynamics, so unfortunately this book wasn't for me. But that's not to say, that it wouldn't be a good fit for other readers, and I think the mixed reviews coming in reflects that. If you like carefully built up plots and complicated characters, then this would be a good thriller for you. The prose was absolutely fine, so i'm happy to rate it a 3 star, even if it wasn't to my liking.

I did try hard with this book, nearly giving up half way through, but persisting in the hope that it would engage me more. Unfortunately despite all the twists at the end I found the characters unconvincing and the story contrived.

This is a real page turner about ‘Emsie’ and her journey for revenge. This book firmly held my attention from the very first page and I just couldn’t stop reading, the lies and secrets had me on the edge of my seat, and that ending! Wow!

Reading the blurb for this made me request it from Netgalley straight away and I was surprised to find out it was set in Ireland which added to the story for me, it’s a complex plot that keeps the reader guessing as there are twists and surprises all throughout the story, there aren’t a lot of the characters with any redeeming qualities and apart from two of the minor characters, everyone else has a backstory to the eventual conclusion. Definitely an author that I will be looking forward to reading more of her books

This book was full of twists and turns, which I enjoyed,
I do feel like parts were a little predictable but on a whole I enjoyed this and for a debut adult novel Mary Watson did really well

I tried to get into this book a few times, and I'm not sure why, I just didn't enjoy it. It didn't feel realistic. Sorry!

4.5/5

One of the firdt ARC books I have received from net gallery, and I wasn't dissapointed. The first 200 pages start strongly and move through the narrative quite quickly. I found the characters intriguing (even if at times unlikeable) and quite realistic to people you'd meet in everyday life.

Overall, it is a definitely an easy read (an hour or so before going to sleep) and maybe a little predictable. However, I finished this book within five days of getting it so must of been quite invested. The only main criticism I would have is the book could be slightly shorter. The pacing of the first 200 pages felt perfect to me, and then I feel it slowed slightly. But overall, truly an enjoyable read.