The Cleaner: A Thriller

by Paul Cleave

Book Overview

An international bestseller and one of the top-selling novels in New Zealand's history, Paul Cleave's dark thriller is a brilliant, bloody masterpiece.

Joe is in control of everything in his simple life--both his day job as a janitor for the po

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1451677790
• ISBN13: 9781451677799
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A great read

This book is a great read, full of suspense and has black humour that makes you laugh out loud too. I thoroughly recommend it.

Clean Your Schedule of Any Distractions Before Starting This Very Very Good Book!

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The Cleaner has your common serial killer thriller type novel but also mixed in is a side story of comic twists as characters assume the wrong thing about other characters and that those characters did something the other ones did and other things all with hilarious results, (similar to what Donald E Westlake used to do in his classic comic capers). There's also a wrench scene that comes completely out of the blue in the storyline that will bring tears to any male reader's eyes. I've already ordered Cleave's upcoming novel The Killing Hour because if it is even a fraction as good as The Cleaner it will be one of the best books of 2008! The basic plot of The Cleaner is a sort of as it happens memoir by a serial killer named Joe who has been terrorising the streets of Christchurch, New Zealand by night. By day he works as a cleaner (hence the title of the novel) in a Christchurch police station where everyone thinks he is mentally retarded, his nick name is slow Joe, a role he's happy to play up. While keeping an eye on the detectives on his case one day he learns another victim has been added to his tally. Not impressed he decides to solve this new murder himself and deal with this framer with his own justice. Joe's mother is also losing her sanity and memory in her old age and for some reason thinks Joe is gay. Meanwhile swayed by heavy religious beliefs and guilt over the death of her own mentally disabled brother maintenance worker Sally always puts in the extra effort to try and help and reach out to Joe. However her talking to him like an idiot does to a baby forms an impression in Joe's mind that she herself is mentally retarded as well. Sally is determined to help Joe out but Joe doesn't need or want anyone prying into his non Slow Joe life. As these characters mix and assume they are talking about something else other than what they mean there are hilarious results for the reader. A sensational novel, you just have to buy it.