The Cleaner

John Milton Series, Book 1

By: Mark Dawson

Narrated by: David Thorpe

John Milton is the man the government calls when they want a problem to go away . . . but what happens when he's the one who needs to disappear?

After a botched job leaves a bloody trail, government assassin John Milton does the one thing he's never done before: he hides.

Disappearing into London's bustling East End and holing up in a vacant flat, Milton becomes involved with his neighbor Sharon and her troubled son Elijah, who are caught in an increasingly bloody turf war between two rival gangs.

Unable to ignore the threat, Milton sets about protecting mother and son, meeting violence with violence. But his involvement puts him in the sights of the government's next best killer, and before long Milton is not just fighting to save a family and a home—he's fighting to stay alive . . .

If you like Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne, you won't be able to put down the compulsively addictive John Milton series.

©2024 UNPUTDOWNABLE LIMITED (P)2024 Tantor Media

John Milton

I really liked the Milton character; a noble hero. The story was good, and well paced; with some interesting side characters. it was well narrated.

I got impatient with the gang characters; realistically portrayed but grim in fact. I just wanted them to shut up by the end; or be shut up.

Had Potential But Ultimately Frustrating and Unsatisfying

While I enjoyed reading about the London hood and associated gangs, I felt that John Milton failed to live up to the hype of a top notch assasin with years of experience. Starting with the setup of a disillusioned assassin, Milton shows a terrible lack of awareness to how people will react to his actions. Even if he was not familiar with specific gang mentality, he should have been very familiar with sociopathic behavior of people who rely on fear and violence to keep others in line. There is no way that Milton would have expected a hardened gang leader to back down after being publically threatened and humiliated. Also, encouraging the one gang member trying to get out of gang life to go to the police made no sense at all; what was that supposed to accomplish except to get him killed? A brief distraction for for the big bad gang boss? Again, anyone with sense would have anticipated that would go bad. Again and again, Milton made terrible, naive decisions, allowing one person after another to take him by surprise. Half the book is spent setting up a confrontation between Milton and the newest assasin on the team. When it comes, it is over almost before it started, with the new guy getting the drop on Milton and Milton surviving only through bumbling luck and someone elses sacrifice, and then to spend more time describing their resulting wounds than was spent on the entire confrontation. Had hoped that I found a new series to read but was not it.

Terribly written and terribly narrated

Extremely weak story, no character development poorly written and poorly narrated. I would’ve gotten a refund if I could.