This is a wild, entertaining ride from start to finish. I didn’t know what to expect, and it kept me guessing and turning pages right up until the end!

About the Book

It’s a dirty job but some idiots are going to do it!

In Alex Franklyns second novel she moves into a comedy, gangster crime caper, where we meet John and Billy (Biben), who are quite the disaster area when asked to perform most duties let alone taking on board the role of cleaners for a rogue hitman Daniel. Both dissatisfied with only being warehouse workers for the London Docklands lady mobster Ruby Girthwaite (who wouldn’t trust them to handle a door knob let alone a deal) they look for additional work to pay the bills. The local hood pub landlord puts them in contact with his old mate Daniel who is desperate for a couple of people to ‘work after hours’.

Things start to go awry when they realise that their rouge hitman turns out to have his vendetta against their main boss Ruby due to some unfinished business, definitely resulting in a conflict of interest for them. With the long suffering police detective chasing after Ruby for years they hope to catch her via the pub landlord, John and Billy. With the hits going wrong and information being leaked, the confusion leads to some ridiculous and unexpected turns of events.

My Thoughts

The layers on this one pull back like an onion. I found myself turning to get to the end and being surprised, like – wait, what? The twists and turns at the end just kept on coming, with some big surprises at the end that really pulled the rug out from under me.

I really liked the two bumbling heroes (anti-heroes) of our tale that led the action. Billy (Biben) was particularly loveable, as I don’t have a soft spot for shameless womanizers. I enjoyed the interesting setup, Jack narrating our story to the police detective, us not knowing what might be going on in the world. The story and the storytelling were fantastic! Definitely a great read and I highly recommend it!

There were some really funny laugh-out-loud parts, and there were some really gross cringe-worthy parts, so it was an absolutely wild ride. I literally did not know what to expect when any of the characters opened their mouth, especially John and Billy. They were absolutely those “wild card” guys that you can’t quite figure out if they’re just really dumb or fun. Maybe a little of both. The author is definitely a great character author writer!

If you missed all our questions, definitely check back through the month because they were super fun! I really enjoyed digging deep into this one! And I’m really grateful to the author and LBT for being included in this read-along. I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this before, though it is a little reminiscent of the dark comedy of Guy Hale’s Jimmy Wayne story, which I also enjoyed.

Who’s It For?

If you enjoy dark humor, as well as mafia and crime books, this might be a good read for you. I really didn’t know what to expect with this one, but it ended up being quite funny. It also had some pretty gross parts and some really surprising parts! It will definitely keep you on your toes and some parts might cause you to laugh out loud literally.

Content Warnings: The author provides the following warnings: profanity, some inappropriate comments, total lack of respect for some pc values, stupid, brain candy, and absolutely no intellectual nutritional value in this book whatsoever… like chocolate cake. The book also includes murder, violence, graphic/gross descriptions of body dismemberment, infidelity, crude humor, and other topics that individuals may find disturbing.

About the Author

When Alex Franklyn decided to start writing after being bored to death at home on enforced leave due to an operation she thought ‘I can do this! All I need is my laptop, google and a large amount of fixated delulu!… and snacks…’ Many times she has thought to herself like many ‘Ooo that would make a good story, someone should write that’ so she did, what could go wrong?

Having a lot or varied interests around different subjects she wanted to attempts to embark on writing for every genre there is. Her first novel The Empathist was a psychological thriller verging on horror which was released in September 2024. After something so dark and twisted it felt like there was room for something more light hearted and less taxing on the brain. She wanted to give readers the chance for escapism to the total stupidness that is her sense of humour with a book titled Cleaners Wanted. This gangster comedy about two completely incompetent men trying to clean up for a rogue hitman is ridiculous but has a strong story to go with it. She has worked predominantly in social care in nearly every sector there is and so has gained a lot of different life experiences from which to draw from. With another area of her work being film, she’s worked on some independent movies in writing and acting. She enjoys variety in her life and all new experiences in whatever form they come in. As her rescue cat Noodle and her laptop battle it out for supremacy for her attention on a daily basis she tries to keep up with her social medias (you can meet Noodle there too). With that and everything else she’s doing she is fairly social on her posts so please do say hi as whilst she’s a trained listener she can also talk the hind legs off a donkey. Despite her awareness of this it does not stop her.

Links

Amazon US: https://a.co/d/6txgisf
Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/iL3IJ9x
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222108839-cleaners-wanted
Author’s Website: www.AlexFranklyn.com

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