The Lover

You never know what happens behind closed doors. 
 
Rafe seems like your perfect man – intelligent, charming, attractive. 
 
You think you’ve met the one. 
 
You go back to his house one night and fall asleep in his arms. 
 
When you wake, you reach out for him. But something feels cold beside you. 
 
Rafe is dead – murdered in bed as you lay next to him – and everyone is going to think you did it…

A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.

A masterclass in tension. Plotted like an intricate spider's web, I was glued to the page for the entirety.

Jennie Godfrey, Sunday TImes bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

Revenge is a dish best served up spotless...The relentless attention to detail is wonderfully claustrophobic.

A modern fairy tale – beautiful, dark, visceral, truly spellbinding.

Sunday Times and Irish Times No. 1 bestselling author Andrea Mara

Tense from the first page, the pressure builds inexorably. A multifaceted tale of secrets, obsessions and betrayals.

Sam Lloyd, bestselling author of The Memory Wood

Mary Watson is from South Africa and now lives on the west coast of Ireland. She has a PhD from the University of Cape Town, where she taught for many years. She won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her adult publishing in South Africa, and in 2014 was named on the Africa39 list of writers under 40 with the potential to define trends in African literature. Her YA novels have been nominated for the Irish Book Awards and the Carnegie medal. Her adult debut, The Cleaner, was an instant Irish Times bestseller.

You never know what happens behind closed doors. 
 
Rafe seems like your perfect man – intelligent, charming, attractive. 
 
You think you’ve met the one. 
 
You go back to his house one night and fall asleep in his arms. 
 
When you wake, you reach out for him. But something feels cold beside you. 
 
Rafe is dead – murdered in bed as you lay next to him – and everyone is going to think you did it…

Mary Watson

A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.

The Cleaner is a masterclass in tension. Plotted like an intricate spider's web, I was glued to the page for the entirety.

Revenge is a dish best served up spotless...The relentless attention to detail is wonderfully claustrophobic.

You'll race through this compelling, sinister mystery.

Propulsive...compulsive and ambitious.

A sinister page-turner...that takes readers on a psychological journey.

A modern fairy tale – beautiful, dark, visceral, truly spellbinding.

Tense from the first page, the pressure builds inexorably. A multifaceted tale of secrets, obsessions and betrayals.

The Cleaner is a richly textured thriller that veritably hums with menace. Taut, twisty and beautifully atmospheric, it pairs a gripping plot with dark, intricate themes. Class, privilege, wealth and entitlement are all put on trial in this immersive tale of betrayal and revenge.

Kia Abdullah, author of Waterstones Thriller of the Month Those People Next Door

The Cleaner is utterly gripping, dark and gothic – a brilliant tale of jealousy, envy and betrayal with one hell of a twist. I devoured it. A tour de force and the arrival of a brilliant new voice in adult fiction.

Edel Coffey, author of An Post Crime Fiction Book of the Year Breaking Point

In The Cleaner, Mary Watson creates an immersive, twisty, character-driven web of family secrets and lies that builds to an ending you won't see coming.

Fiona McPhillips, author of When We Were Silent

A rollercoaster ride of manipulation and obsession - I couldn’t put it down.

Lisa Hall, bestselling author of Between You and Me

Dark, tense and intriguing, these characters linger in your mind long after you've put the book down - and what a twist!

Sam Blake, No. 1 bestselling author of Little Bones

I loved this tightly plotted exploration of privilege and damaged people, and the twists just kept coming.

Laura Pearson, Kindle No.1 bestselling author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont

The Cleaner is a layered tale that takes a sharp look at themes of privilege, identity and class...it's a book that you’ll whip through, thanks to its twists, turns, hate-readable characters and dramatic climax.

Oh my goodness - the twists in this! Dripping in atmosphere, this tale of revenge is edgy and immersive, laying bare the fractures within a picture perfect household with a scalpel-like precision.

What a wonderful book - I hope it becomes the bestseller it deserves to be. I was hooked from the opening page - a totally compulsive read. Beautifully crafted.

Marsali Taylor, author of The Shetland Mysteries Series

If you’re a fan of crime thrillers, this is your next must-read. You won’t want to put it down…

“Watson’s adult debut is full of damaged characters, mindboggling twists, and tension that ratchets up to a fever pitch. It’s a dark, sinister, oppressive, utterly riveting book about obsession, lies, and revenge and is guaranteed to keep readers mesmerized until the shocking finish.

If you’re after an edge-of-your-seat thriller, look out for this one.

Watson’s vivid sense of place and devious plotting make her a writer worth keeping tabs on. It’s a hair-raising good time.

Simmering and tension-filled… Watson’s novel builds real suspense by carefully revealing the layers of the characters and their stories.

A slow-burn thriller with bite… Mary Watson’s adult debut is moody, morally murky and brimming with quiet rage.

Mary Watson is a writer of great skill... hard to put down and harder to forget.

Prepare to be hooked by the bestselling psychological thriller, a must-read tale of obsession, identity and privilege perfect for fans of Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid, C. L. Taylor and Lisa Jewell. 
 
THE NUMBER 1 IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
‘Beautiful, dark, visceral.’ Andrea Mara, Sunday Times bestselling author of No One Saw a Thing 
 
‘The Cleaner is a masterclass in tension.’ Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things 
 
‘A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.’ Daily Mail 
 
It's not dust she's looking for. It's dirt. 
 
Esmie is meant to be invisible. 
 
Just a cleaner with a foreign accent that no one quite has time to place, and a uniform of leggings and a duster that allows her to explore the homes of the wealthy Woodlands gated community, unnoticed. 
 
Which is exactly what she wants. Because Esmie isn’t really a cleaner. 
 
One of the residents of Woodlands has ruined her life. And when she finds out who, she’s going to make them pay . . . 
 
Praise for The Cleaner: 
 
‘Wonderfully claustrophobic.’ Sunday Independent 
 
‘A sinister page-turner.’ Irish Times 
 
‘Domestic noir at its finest’ i Paper 
 
‘A richly textured thriller that veritably hums with menace. Taut, twisty and beautifully atmospheric, it pairs a gripping plot with dark, intricate themes.’ Kia Abdullah, author of Waterstones Thriller of the Month Those People Next Door 
 
‘I couldn’t put it down.’ Lisa Hall, bestselling author of Between You and Me

The Cleaner

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Mary Watson

Praise for The Cleaner

A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.

The Cleaner is a masterclass in tension. Plotted like an intricate spider's web, I was glued to the page for the entirety.

Revenge is a dish best served up spotless...The relentless attention to detail is wonderfully claustrophobic.

A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.

The Cleaner is a masterclass in tension. Plotted like an intricate spider's web, I was glued to the page for the entirety.

Revenge is a dish best served up spotless...The relentless attention to detail is wonderfully claustrophobic.

A heart-thumping thriller packed with exciting twists.

The Cleaner is a masterclass in tension. Plotted like an intricate spider's web, I was glued to the page for the entirety.

Revenge is a dish best served up spotless...The relentless attention to detail is wonderfully claustrophobic.

Books by Mary Watson

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