There is much interest in a debut novel called The Cleaner by new British writer Mary Watson. Penguin Random House (PRH) will publish in the UK under the Bantam imprint and PRH imprint Crown will publish in the US. Rights have already sold to Italy.
In the UK Deputy publishing director Thorne Ryan acquired world rights from Claire Wilson at RCW. Wilson said: “Mary has created an unforgettably authentic heroine who will have every reader on her side, and I am delighted by the vision and ambition at Transworld for this extraordinarily compelling and important story.”
PRH describes The Cleaner as a “beautifully sinister, propulsive” novel following cleaner Esmie working in the exclusive Woodlands gated neighbourhood. The synopsis states: “Treading silently over the polished wooden floorboards and cloud-soft carpets, Esmie gathers up the mess of broken marriages, quiet deceptions and careless failures. She tucks away their fragments, keeping them safe. For now. Because one of the residents took from her the person she loves most. She’s not here to clean; she’s here for revenge. And she’ll get it using the weapons her employers unwittingly handed her along with the keys to their homes: their own secrets.”
Watson said: “I was captured by the idea of a cleaner who moves quietly between a few houses, seeing the things people hide from each other – but with a twist.”
Ryan added: “The Cleaner’s fantastic hook, top-quality writing and mic-drop-twisty plot make for a truly stand-out commercial thriller. The ominous, almost gothic atmosphere Watson creates with her Irish setting is hypnotising and in Esmie, she gifts the reader a brilliantly flawed anti-heroine they can’t help but root for.”