The Cleaner

For fans of Child 44 and The Lives of Others, this gripping novel pits an unforgettable heroine against an unforgivable past. Signs of an agonisingly slow death, pools of blood, hands desperately searching for a hold. Judith Kepler has seen it all. She is a crime scene specialist. She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces. She is a cleaner. It is at the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered that she is suddenly confronted with her own past. The murder victim knew Judith's secret: as a child she was sent to an orphanage under mysterious circumstances - parentage unknown. And the East German secret police were always there, in the background. When Judith begins to ask questions, she becomes the target of some powerful enemies. And nothing will ever be the same again.