The Cleaner

The first half of this book is excellent, but, after a while, it gets too clever for its own good. I found the ending oddly unsatisfying. ( )

Joe, the eponymous cleaner, has a janitorial job in the Christchurch police station. He is thought to be mildly retarded, or at least a bit slow. Beyond his job, he dearly loves his pet goldfish.
Unbeknownst to the cops, Joe has an inordinate interest in their investigation into the Christchurch Carver, a serial killer currently terrorizing the city. Joe is copying bits and pieces of the file as he gets the opportunity, and he has also been able to bug the investigation room. Because Joe spends his free time murdering young women, and it is he who is the Christchurch Carver. However, Joe knows, and the police do not, that one of the victims attributed to the Christchurch Carver was in fact murdered by a copycat killer. And Joe want to find out who the copycat is, and frame him for all the murders.
This was a very clever crime novel, and I highly recommend it. I immediately borrowed its sequel, Joe Victim, from the library, but did not find it as engaging and did not finish it ( )

Didn't finish - will come back, I *want* to like this series....

The Cleaner by Paul Cleave
The Christchurch Noir Mystery Series Book #1
4.5 ★'s

From The Book:
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. It’s the perfect plan because he already knows he can outwit the police.

My Views:
I have read The Theodore Tate series and all of the standalone novels by this author and found all of them to be exceedingly well done with interesting, true to life characters. This series will be no exception.

The book alternates between the first person narrative of Joe, with flashbacks to his past, and several third person chapters that focus on Sally, a young woman who works at the department and feels pity, and possibly affection, for Joe. It's a very graphic, physiological story about a serial killer that believes he is smarter than anyone else and will never be caught. There are some humorous twists. He and Sally constantly misunderstand one another. Then there's Joe's mother. The strange Melissa rounds out the quirky characters. It will remind you how little you know about the people that even briefly share your everyday life.

In spite of the occasional humor it's still a dark insight into the mind of a merciless killer. The physiological thriller fan will be held captive with the first chapter. ( )

I’d never heard of Paul Cleave until it was a book selection for the Psychological Thrillers book group. Psychological thrillers are one of my absolute favorite types of books to read, but sometimes they’re a little challenging to find.

I loved this book and this book alone has made me a new Paul Cleave fan. He is a master of character development. I’m not even kidding. I’ve never read characters that were this vivid. The characters were so distinct and real that I felt like I knew everything about them, every thought that ran through their heads, especially in the dialog.

The narration alternates between Joe and Sally. Joe is the cleaner, who’s a highly intelligent, sociopathic, serial-killing rapist. It’s fascinating to read a novel from his point of view. He mostly didn’t have a conscience about any of the evil things he did, but at times he appeared to have a small bit of a conscience and then he’d do or say something to make you feel like it was just a false alarm. Oddly, he loved his goldfish more than any living thing. Joe was very sarcastic and funny and I felt weird laughing at the things he said knowing he was a sick bastard. His character is so well developed that at times I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of Paul Cleave’s exceptional writing talents or if Paul is in fact, very unhinged. How in the world does a writer get into the mind of a serial killer like that? It’s amazing.

Sally is Joe’s coworker and at it took quite a while to learn her significance in the novel.

Evelyn is Joe’s mom and she is so amusing. Joe’s visits with her were the funniest. Speaking of funny, this novel had several comedic moments in unexpected scenes, such as in a graveyard. I wasn’t expecting to laugh while reading a novel that featured a serial killer.

One person said in their review that they felt sorry for Joe and before I read this book, I was thinking Are you crazy? After I read the novel, I understood why the reviewer felt sympathy for him. The park scene and later at his apartment will actually make you feel sorry for him. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even Joe. If you think Joe is evil, wait until you meet Melissa.

There were times when Joe’s luck seemed unbelievable. He was able to do things undetected when he should have been caught. He was able to walk into a conference room of the police station where he worked, grab files and either make copies in the copy room or take the files home. You would think that a station full of police officers and detectives would notice missing files for an open case. Other times, he was able to sneak into people’s houses unnoticed, not to mention all of the cars he stole. He also walked everywhere with a briefcase that contained a gun and knives including into work every day.

I loved this novel so much that I immediately went to the library to pick up the next book of this series, Joe Victim . If Joe Victim is as good as The Cleaner , I’m planning to devour all of Paul Cleave’s novels.

I highly recommend this novel to fans of psychological thrillers and aspiring writers who want to learn about character development.
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