Entertaining, not a standout but well constructed and with enough twists and turns to keep you interested as well as characters that you did actually care about so worth my while reading more from this author. ( )

How refreshing it is to read a well written, hard hitting, noir not set in New York or Los Angeles. Matt Worth is a disgraced cop, sent to patrol a grocery store in Omaha, Nebraska. Getting to know one of the check out clerks draws him into a labyrinth of intrigue and crime that leads to a series of actions and events that rushes headlong to a startling conclusion.

The story is tightly plotted, the characters are well drawn and fully developed; even the minor characters are complex. A roller coaster ride of a book, my only complaint is that it was over much too soon. ( )

A good cop who's on the outs at work is stationed in a grocery store providing security and finds himself drawn to a checkout clerk who is obviously abused by a no-good boyfriend. His protective instincts get him into big trouble when she kills the abuser. As always, Doolittle crafts a fine mystery with all-too-human characters who you care about in spite of yourself.

At first I thought this was just an especially competent crime novel with better-than-average characters, but along about fifty pages in I realized that the real trick here is creating intelligent noir with a lean-ness of language, and without the side trips into sentimentality and self-indulgence which, to me, are an occasional hazard with noir.

The main character - Matt Worth - is especially memorable - ambivalent enough to make me happy while still being believably motivated. Oh, actually, Vince and Rita were great as well - talk about constructing entire lives on a spare framework of a few dozen paragraphs. Okay, I liked Pospisil too...frankly the only characters I didn't love were the local bad guys and their out-of-town bosses...and that has to do more with my own tastes

Not crazy about the actual physical format of the book: doesn't it seem strangely SMALL? I'm thinkin' give those 300+ pages a little more room to breathe. Maybe is that a Dell Suspense thing? ( )

The Cleanup is an interesting tale about what happens when good intentions go awry and spin out of control. Policeman Matt Worth works the security detail in a local supermarket after being demoted for striking a superior officer. When he develops a crush on the checkout girl only to find out she's in an abusive relationship with a smalltime hood, things go from bad to worse. The book switches perspective from the cops to the crooks and back with aplomb, making the narrative hard to follow at times, but those who stick with it are rewarded with a thoughtful and suspenseful novel. ( )