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Title: The Cleaner

Author: Paul Cleave

Narrator: Paul Ansdell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-10-15

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 56 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Suspense

Publisher's Summary:

Joe is in control of everything in his simple life - both his day job as a janitor for the police department and his "night work". He isn't bothered by the daily news reports of the Christchurch Carver, who, they say, has murdered seven women. Joe knows, though, that the Carver killed only six. He knows that for a fact, and he's determined to find the copycat. He'll punish him for the one then frame him for the other six. All he needs now is to take care of all the women who keep getting in his way, including his overprotective mother.

Then there's the mysterious Melissa, the only woman to have ever understood him, but whose fantasies of blackmail and torture don't have a place in Joe's investigation.

Critic Reviews:

"This book is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Who is hunting who?

Note: This book can be read as part of the bigger series of crime novels that all take place in Christchurch, New Zealand. Some characters from those other novels are mentioned here but you dont have to have read them to understand the context. It works just fine as a stand alone.

As we all know from the books description, Joe is the Christchurch Carver, and 7 killings have been attributed to him. But he only killed 6, so he is determined to hunt down this copy cat killer and punish him for overstepping. Right away, I had a little evil chuckle over the idea that serial killers have a code of polite behavior among themselves. Later on, the reader meets Melissa, another killer, and shes pretty miffed at Joe for breaking her ideas of polite behavior as well. Obviously, things would go much easier for Joe if he had a rolodex of the local killers in Christchurch and could coordinate such things. Alas, to be a serial killer is to be a loner.

Joe likes to play the mentally retarded janitor and thats how he got the job at the Christchurch police headquarters. This allows Joe all sorts of access to the investigation into his killings. For much of the book, no one is aware of what Joe is. Detective Schroeder, who weve seen in other Christchurch crime novels by this author, is unaware of Joes real abilities. Even his mother, who is verbally and sometimes physically abusive, finds him subservient. It was a delicious kind of agony to know that Joe is this vicious killer!

The author did a great job of balancing the story I wanted Joe caught, but not so soon or not so easily because I wanted an interesting tale. The violence is, for the most part, referred to instead of portrayed in grim detail. Though there is one scene where Joe suffers a significant injury that was graphic but since hes the evil serial killer, I was fine with that.

Joes mom was excellently done. Shes into memorizing the grocery store ads and puzzles and shes not a very good cook but thinks she is. In some eerie ways, she reminded me of my own mom. Not that Im going to turn into a serial killer because of it or anything.

Then theres Sally, a maintenance worker at the police precinct. She had a brother who passed away and Sally becomes a bit fixated on Joe, wanting to help him. She plays a key role later on in the book that I wont spoil, but her character went from being pretty mellow boring to rather interesting.