This is brilliantly written. It is dark, twisted and fast paced.
There is good characterisation.
This book is a page turner and kept me reading into the night

I read this book a while ago but couldnt find the words. i really like the authors other works but found i struggled through. The main character had a disconnected view of her killings. It was a good read but not for me

A thought provoking page turner. It's so sparkly clean it shines. A physcological thriller with humour and laughs. It made me want to scrub the house from top to bottom.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In all honesty I was a little disappointed in this book, I found it uninteresting and slow.

Maria is an excellent cleaner. She gets rid of grime, grease, dust and dirty motherfu**ers.

She's even better than the famous cleaning spray. Bang! And the dirt is gone. The only thing that's left is a calming aroma of bleach.

I read "Make me clean" back in December and I loved it!
I couldn't wait for it to be published. I had my Marigolds clean and shiny for the picture. And then the life happened. New job, new challenges. I completely forgot to write and post a review.

But yeah, here I am 😂
Nearly 4 months later, my brain is empty and I have no idea what I want to say. I'm a kind of person who forgets the plot of "unforgettable book" within a week.

One thing I'm sure of is that "Make me clean" has good vibes (just like all of the author's books). Tina Baker writing is so good! She's got this wicked sense of humour that just speaks to my heart.

Another thing I remember is that I was reading it on a plane, flying back from Lanzarote. The story was so gripping, I forgot to panic during the flight as usual 😂 I managed to complete 4 hour journey without a single tear and not a single drop of wine was needed. That has to count for something, right?

So... Yeah... Buy this book!
I guarantee Maria's skills are much better than Mrs Hinch 😂

Full disclosure to start us off; I've read both of Tina Baker's previous novels and absolutely loved both of them, so I was expecting great things from her third novel – the intriguingly titled 'Make Me Clean' and thankfully, I was not disappointed.

A decade ago, Maria escaped her previous life and became a cleaner in London for a variety of different people with different circumstances and personalities. Some are kind and friendly, others are unpleasant and snobby and don't really give her the time of day. Then there's Brian who is struggling with a bullying, homophobic manager and likes Elsie to listen to his tribulations, and Balogan, a huge and intimidating nightclub owner and man of very few words who suffers with some dreadfully loud and inconsiderate neighbours across the corridor from his penthouse apartment.

Maria takes great pride in her work and has a very strong work ethic – she's usually found traipsing across town getting from job to job or falling into bed in the early hours, exhausted. Though she tries to keep herself to herself, through chance encounters she keeps finding out, or getting involved in things she shouldn't, and it's hard for her not to get more involved than she feels wants to. One of these encounters with Balogan is almost heart-stopping - I think I held my breath while I read through the whole paragraph.

One of Maria's favourite clients is Elsie, an elderly lady who lives with several cats and her awful, abusive husband. Sadly, Elsie is slipping slowly into the grip of ever-worsening dementia and Maria is becoming increasingly attached and involved in her care. Something about the old woman calls out to Maria and before long she's become the old lady's self-styled protector, cleaning out not only Elsie's house, but also her life. Now she just has to hope the evidence keeps itself contained and that no-one starts to question why the “man" of the house is never at home and why that rose patch in the garden has suddenly started to look rather disturbed. When Elsie's distant son starts to get more involved in her situation and starts talking about moving his Mum into a care home, getting rid of the cats and selling the house, Maria is at her wits end and things take a further dark turn: if the house is sold then someone might dig up that garden and well, no-one needs that kind of hassle do they? It's at this point that you start to wonder what the reasons were that led her Maria to flee her old life in the first place...

Make Me Clean is another triumph for Tina Baker. As the child of a window cleaner and a fairground traveller, her lived experience of working class people, often looked down upon whilst just trying to keep their heads above water, lends a realism to her writing that makes her characters so believable, so gritty and real. Her protagonists are shades of grey – they're not bad people, but they do very, very bad things – so why do I still find myself rooting for them?

If you've ever come across Tina on TV or social media you'll already know that she's a laugh-out-loud funny woman, and this dark humour shines through the characters she writes, even when they haven't got very much to laugh about. The ability to get inside the mind of her characters is one of the things I have loved in each of Tina's books; her observational skills are second to none and when combined with the poignancy of her prose she translates that into a pathway to the sweet spot in your empathy gland, plunges the knife in and twists it a few times. Just like her best characters do, in fact.

A solid 5 out of 5.

Thrilling and gripping read. One of Tina's best! This book had it all!

It was full of twists and turns. The character development throughout was brilliant. I definitely would question everything if I was in this position but it just shows you... you don't always know someone. There is a bit of dark humour which I appreciated - it lightened the mood slightly but always due to the nature of the book, still kept the eery feel.

Thanks to Tina and Netgalley for allowing me access to this ARC.

#MakeMeClean #NetGalley
Awesome.
Maria is a good woman and a good cleaner. She cleans for Elsie, the funny old bird who's losing her marbles, with the terrible husband. She cleans for Brian, the sweet man with the terrible boss. She cleans for the mysterious Mr Balogan, with the terrible neighbours.If you're thinking of hiring her, you should probably know that Maria might have killed the terrible husband, the terrible boss and the terrible neighbours. She may also have murdered the man she loved. She didn't set out to kill anyone, of course, but her clients have hired her to clean up their lives, and she takes her job seriously - not to mention how much happier they all are now. The trouble is, murder can't be washed out. You can only sweep it under the carpet, and pray no one looks too closely..
Thanks to NetGalley and Viper for giving me an advance copy.

Thank you thank you thank you for a brilliant novel.

First book by Tina and not my last
This is a psychological thriller with loads of twists and turns plus emotion and dark humour.

Written at a good pace and the story builds / unfolds and you get to understand why some events happen.

For crime with a difference - highly recommended.

Make me Clean is an escapist pleasure. This is a story that standouts in a crowded genre and has you aching to read more.

If you are feeling like the thriller genre is full of the usual twists and turns, character tropes and narrative styles then please give Tina Bakers work a whirl. She proves that fiction can never be too dark or depraved. You’ll instantly fall in love with the morally grey character, Maria and still find yourself rooting for her by the end.

I’ve read hundreds of psychological thrillers. Its kind of like a drug. Feeling down? Read in the genre. Feeling happy, read the genre, feeling the rage? Read the genre. It’ll instantly make you feel better about your own life. It’s kind of like therapy but much cheaper and still has that instant euphoric high. I need these types of stories in my life, and I think Tina Baker writes with a flourish of the mischievous dark. Like a wizard of the authoring world. You’re a wizard, Tina. Anyway, I digress.

Make Me Clean centres around feminist rage. Maria has had about enough of men trying to ruin her life through control and domination. The opening pages leaves no doubt that something awful has happened. I loved it, the perfect way of opening a story is to have the reader unfooted in the first few sentences. Her inner monologue left me needing answers, a woman I wanted to find out more about. Maria’s story wraps the reader in a tight fog, movement and vision is impaired and the only way out is to read on. I was hooked.

Maria is cleaner. She cleans for Elsie, the sweet woman who is in the midst of dementia. My favourite character, she has a devious personality and doesn’t mince her words, a spade is indeed a spade with her. She has two cats who are her world – always going to love someone who is cat person. She has a conniving nephew, Del, who is making it is one man mission to get his aunt into a care home under the guise of being better looked after. The truth is all he wants is her money. Maria sees right through him and what she sees is mainly yellow, a coward through and through.

She also cleans for Brian. He’s a sensitive man who Maria instantly builds a friendship with. They don’t have a lot in common, but she can see how kind he is. He has a bully for a boss who often comments on how his generation are a lot weaker than his. He picks at him constantly and when Brian decides to throw a party for his co-workers and his boss just invites himself along, Maria knows she needs to do something to help him.

Her final client is the mysterious night club owner, Balogan. She cleans there at night at the man himself is a walking enigma. He’s huge and foreboding and some of the things he tells Maria makes her wonder what his story is. She knows he’s dangerous, his neighbours can attest to that. Shared looks, whispers and comments from Mal and Cass – two people who seem to thrive from their party lifestyle. Do they know more about the big man next door than their letting on?

Make me Clean is a psychological thriller with many twists and turns that takes readers into the world of a cleaner. Maria is a cleaner for Elsie, who is sadly battling dementia. This brings emotion and dark humour.

Tina Baker writes at a good pace as the story builds up as you then watch as secrets unravel and opens wider to allow readers to see the reasons why certain events happen.

For crime with a difference, I certainly recommend Make Me Clean.

Rated 4.5 stars on my blog

4.5 stars!

I have loved Baker’s writing style since I read the belter that was Call Me Mummy. I love how dark, deviously humorous, and raw her writing is.

Make Me Clean is another cracker. I really liked Maria and I totally rooted for her throughout. Yes, some of the things she did were naughty, but hey. And Elsie, oh Elsie! Their banter was spot on.

Hooked from get go (it started with a grave being dug soooo….) Baker sucked me right in. Only Baker can write tension, pain, and anxiety so beautifully laced with love and companionship and wrapped up in a dark witty bow.

If you like your books raw, dark, and witty, then you need to give Baker’s books a go!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 average stars. Seems I’m in the minority with this one but I just didn’t gel with the book.

It’s my first by this author so I’ve nothing to compare it to but on the basis of this I won’t be rushing to read another.

It felt like a book that never really got going. And the plot lines were very far fetched but we found out too late in the book, the reasons why she did what she did and she was where she was.

The whole Balogan thread was ridiculous, as well as how she ‘helped’ out with a situation in his building….

All in all disappointing

Make me Clean

Title - Make me Clean
Author - Tina Baker
Release Date - February 16 2023
Page Count - 400
Read/Listen Time - 12hrs
Rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /4 stars

Tina Baker does it again. Another amazing book. Tina has this way of making her characters relatable and writes with a realistic prose; the character interaction is believable that gives an everyday feel to the novel, it makes you think, yes, people do actually speak like that.

In Make me clean we follow Maria, a professional cleaner. She cares for the people she cleans for, maybe a little too much. She feels protective of them and would do anything to help them. She cleans for Elsie, an elderly woman battling dementia and all but moves in with her to care for her, she wants to help a client who is having trouble with his boss at work, and she wants to please the mysterious Swedish Bologan whom she is developing feelings for. Whilst cleaning and helping her clients Maria is battling her own demons of the past over losing a child and the man she loved.

Tina uses her usual style of dark humour mixed in with some serious issues such as mental health, homophobia, drug abuse, and dementia to weave a story that kept me gripped to the last page. I really wanted to know where Maria’s life will go next…a sequel perhaps?

Another great read and highly recommended - 4 stars.

this book was compulsive reading. Fast paced, I couldnt put it down. She has her own style of writing and I will definately be looking at reading more of her books.

Make Me Clean is a phenomenal thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended! Be sure to check out Make Me Clean asap.

Downtrodden Maria means well and does a fabulous job as a cleaner but she just isn’t cleaning the house she is cleaning up the murders, that just happen. Her friendship with Elsie is the one solid thing in her life.
This felt a little flat for me and I’m a little sad with myself I didn’t enjoy it more but I know that plenty will love it. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc

I LOVED this one!
I really enjoyed Maria's character. Who not to be better at murder than a cleaner...
Will she be caught?
Who else will she hurt?

These are the questions that kept me gripped throughout. I raced through this book as I was eager to find out the ending.

This is a psychological thriller, which is well written, with a great storyline. Maria is the main character of the story, and she is a cleaner, who also happens to be a murderer who kills and gets rid of the people who are upsetting her cleaning clients.

Throughout the book, we are shown Maria's life in the past, as well as what she is doing in the present. Both are weaven together beautifully, and this gives us an insight into Maria's character, and why she is the way she is.

I highly recommend this book, which is quirky, interesting, grisly and compelling. It will draw you in and keep you engrossed until the last page. I loved it.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but, unfortunately I didn’t. I found it slow and boring. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.