Title: The Cleaner (The Professionals #9)
Author: Jessica Gadziala
Published: April 2021
Publisher: Self Published
Readership: Adult
Genre: Romance
Rating: ★★★★★
I received a copy of The Cleaner from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
As the name of her podcast suggests, Poppy is on the case. Of a serial killer operating just under the radar in Navesink Bank. And nothing will get in her way. Except, maybe, a good-looking guy with tortured eyes, anxiety, and a cleaning compulsion.
She never could have guessed, though, that he was the very man she’d been tracking down for months…
At the start of the month, Heather (from Hea Booktubes) introduced me to Jessica Gadziala’s books and I fell headfirst down a rabbit hole with her series, The Professionals. It’s about a team of highly trained operatives with very specific skillsets who work for a ‘fixer’ agency. They’re hired to make problems go away, and each book follows the romance story for one of the team. I binge read the first eight books in around four days while on term break and got in contact with the author, Jessica Gadziala, a few days after that. She very kindly sent me an early review copy of the ninth book in the series, The Cleaner, which has just recently been released.
I loved this book from start to finish. Finn is nicknamed The Cleaner for the work he does for the ‘fixer’ firm he works for because he is responsible for cleaning crime scenes of any kind of evidence. He suffers from PTSD and the cleaning is an obsessive compulsive need that’s been mentioned throughout previous books in the series by other characters. In this one we experience it through his perspective, and his own understanding of why he does what he does, how it affects him, and his coping strategies. His romantic interest, Poppy, is a true crime podcaster investigating a series of unsolved crimes that may or may not lead back to Finn and his friends. I loved the relationship dynamic between Finn and Poppy and how Poppy reacts to Finn’s OCD, as well as the interactions Finn has with other members of his firm (some of whom we haven’t spent a lot of time with yet).
Plus, serial killers!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait for future books about some of the other team members. This is a series I’ll definitely be going back to re-read.
Noveltea Corner 