-| I Have So Many Issues… Reviewing The cleaner |-

So this is possibly the worst book that I’ve read all year, i’m going to try to be brief and not let this be a rant review as I know that’s no fun for anyone.

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.
All he needs now is to take care of all the women who keep getting in his way, including his odd, overprotective mother and Sally, the maintenance worker who sees him as a replacement for her dead brother. 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.
-Goodreads-

Such a strong and thrilling introduction! However now the problems begin…

Serious issues with fat shaming here, Sally, one of the main characters weight is constantly mentioned throughout the whole book. A comment is made about her weight being the reason she’s single something along the lines of it’s time she’s losing not weight.
“Crumbs don’t fall out of her mouth but if they did it might help her lose a bit of weight”
“Fat chicks dressed to look like sluts”

Another set of issues are around Joe pretending to be intellectually disabled to fool the detectives that he’s working with, he constantly uses the word retard and refers to himself as “Slow Joe”. I’ve seen a few people compare him to Dexter which I think is a huge insult to Dexter. He’s not clever or funny just selfish and offensive.
Joe now states that not only is Sally fat but she’s also “mentally handicapped” he doesn’t believe that she even has the capacity to drive a car, “there’s only an on or an off switch for people like her”.

From the half way point the plot seems to fall apart and things stop making sense. There are so many positive reviews on Goodreads that it’s making me question whether I’m in the minority with this opinion. I’m really shocked that the author wrote a second book due to people requesting it. I don’t recommend this book to anyone.