Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner - Kath Kincaid

My latest offering from the library was Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner. I picked this book off the shelf because the cover shouted out a glammed up cleaner looking very out of place. At the time it made me chuckle to myself so I had to loan the book to find out what it was all about. I had never heard of the author Kath Kincaid before reading this book, but I find she has a very easy to read writing style which will make me look for more books by her in the future. The book is centred on two families, the Murphy's and the McNulty's. Alex and Emily Murphy live in a large country house. Alex is a successful businessman who neglects his wife and Emily is a bored ...  Read the complete review

When Karen (karenuk) lent me what appeared to be a classic Chick Lit book (brightly coloured cover with an illustration clearly drawn by someone who had never read the book), my heart sank. I am not a huge fan of the genre but I lay my prejudices aside and started the novel. A pleasant surprise lay in store. THE PLOT The central story revolves around Emily Murphy, a tired, dowdy, middle-aged housewife who is bored with life and whose husband has grown apart from her. One day she hires a cleaner (you didn?t see that coming, did you!) called Mae McNulty. Mae is everything that Emily is not: vivacious and attractive with a very full life ...  Read the complete review

This is probably the second best book I’ve ever read, which is high praise indeed, as I am a self-confessed bookworm and live on a staple diet of modern fiction, with a spoonful of biography and a pinch of historical romance. (Incidentally, the best book I’ve ever read is Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon.) So how did I stumble across this wonderful novel? Well, my mum-in-law loves books too, but doesn’t often recommend them, knowing I already have a bookshelf stacked with a very high ‘to be read’ pile. But she recommended this one. So I knew it must be something special. It is. It’s hard to capture the essence of this ...  Read the complete review