Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner - Kath Kincaid

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 ...

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 ...