“Clean Slate” by Brianna Labuskes

A keenly observant, intelligent, and deeply moral crime scene cleaner takes center stage in Brianna Labuskes’ latest psychological suspense novel, Clean Slate (Thomas & Mercer, 2026). The “yuk factor” immediately grabs the reader in the opening paragraphs, but it serves a higher purpose: introducing the admirable perspective of protagonist Olive Hunt:

“Brain matter was my least favorite thing to clean up. Not because it was actually difficult to get off a wall, though it was… but because it reminded me that everything I was scrubbing had once been a human being.”

For over a decade, Olive has worked to erase the physical remnants of suffering. She is uniquely suited for the grim task, having been raised by a mother whose cleanliness was obsessive to the point of cruelty. Unlike her mother, however, Olive is a kind soul who has harnessed that rigid training to build her own business. This career grants her the autonomy she craves; by making her own schedule, she finally maintains some control over a life once defined by chaos.

The Peach Tree Community Center (PTCC) in Atlanta serves as the story’s emotional anchor. As a child, it was Olive’s safe haven from her abusive home. Today, it remains her North Star, connecting her to a found family: Anthony, a volunteer and father figure, and his daughter Leah, Olive’s best friend.

The action is relentless. While cleaning a seedy motel, Olive discovers a plastic baggie tucked inside a bathtub spout—a detail only a cleaner with her level of obsession would find. Inside is a news article detailing a string of overdoses linked to the PTCC, including that of Jessie Hayes, a young woman who visited the center.

When Olive is called to an upscale hotel for her next job, she discovers an identical baggie. By the time a third body appears, Olive realizes what the police refuse to see: these aren’t accidental deaths or suicides. They are murders staged to perfection. There is a serial killer loose in Atlanta, and the killer has noticed Olive’s keen eye. When red roses arrive at her home with an anonymous “Thank You” note, the stakes become personal. The killer knows her history—and knows she is the only one capable of finding his hidden messages.

While the mystery is superb, the characterizations and social insights truly elevate the novel. Labuskes expertly explores the friction between the ultra-rich and the struggling classes through the lens of billionaire Cutter Sutton and Anthony Last. Childhood friends from the PTCC, the two have drifted apart as their values diverged:

“Cutter viewed wealth as a number in his bank account. Anthony viewed it in the lives he’d helped.”

Labuskes has a gift for the perfect detail that brings a character to life. Anthony recalls an endearing quirk of Cutter’s wife, Naomi:

“When she’d come over to the Last family cookout, she’d snuck one single ice cube into her glass of white wine… he knew rich people didn’t. It had struck him as endearing at the time. It had made him like her more.”

The prose is further enriched by sharp, philosophical depth. Labuskes muses on the tragedy of workaholics who find themselves lost in retirement, and the devastating, universal truth that “you never move on from the death of a child.”

Perhaps most poignant is Olive’s own observation: “Never build statues of living people.” She understands that we love people not for their perfection, but for their “flaws and bad choices and wrong turns and complexities.” This is precisely why readers will fall for the cast of Clean Slate—they feel remarkably human.

With its relentless pace, nuanced characters, and emotional weight, Clean Slate is a gripping suspense story that refuses to let go. Billed as the first in the Olive Hunt series, this reviewer is already impatient for the next installment.

Brianna Labuskes

Brianna Labuskes is the author of eleven other novels, including the Raisa Susanto series and the Dr. Gretchen White series. She grew up in Pennsylvania, lived in Washington D.C. for many years and now calls Asheville, N.C. home. She enjoys traveling, hiking and spending time with her pup. For more: visit her at briannalabuskes.com.