It'll clean up (Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner - Kath Kincaid)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Mrs Murphy Hires a Cleaner - Kath Kincaid
Date:	21/12/08 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to read

Disadvantages: lots of characters

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 middle aged housewife with no life.

Mae McNulty is the centre of her family, and a large one they are. In two council houses knocked together lives, granddad Jim, dad Eddie, Mae, her children, Alice, Shona, Dicky and Craig, and her granddaughter Cloud.
That's a mouthful in itself when we meet all the characters pretty much at the beginning of the book. Mae is branded common and cheap as she has four children by four different dads. She comes across as the kindest woman you will ever meet and she appears hard working, having about four different jobs which take up all of the seven days in a week.

Mae and Emily meet when Emily advertises for a cleaner. Emily at this point in the book is very depressed and Mae seems to bring a spark back into the house so Emily is happy for Mae to have the job.
Despite being 10 years apart in age, the two women seem to get on very well and a friendship is formed. This helps to bring Emily back out of her shell and into her own being once again. Will this be a good thing though?

The book takes on a few different story lines all running through each other, and there are connections happening at the beginning of the book that only become apparent at the very end. They do all work and are easy to follow despite having so much information and lots of characters to remember as you read.
Alex Murphy has his own business storyline happening, which intermingles without him realising into an Irish mafia storyline.
Emily finds herself being intertwined with Mae's family more and more as the story progresses and we see Emily grow as a character more than any of them.

Despite the book having a lot of information happening I found Kincaid demonstrated the characters well and I really found myself getting into the story without even trying. I realised I could read this and put it down mid page but still be able to pick it up and remember what was happening a day or so later, so there is no worry about being lost.
I found that the further I read into the book. The more engrossed I was getting into the lives of the characters. There are the token bad guys and good guys as you will find in any book, but you find yourself wishing for good things and bad things to happen.
There are some obvious twists and turns in the book but also a couple that I didn't see coming and the end was quite a surprise in different ways.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes an easy chick lit read. You'll find yourself laughing as well as sometimes cringing at what has been written.

Price: £5.99
ISBN: 978-0340768808
Published: 2000

Summary: a good chick lit book