This book was simply fascinating! I was immediately drawn into it from the very first page. The author's minute descriptions of characters and scene literally transported me there. I started and read this book in an entire rainy New England day because it was that good! The delicate subject of trauma cleanup was handled with tact, a bit if humor and left me utterly fascinated to learn more. I'm looking forward to more if this author.

The cover is so great, isn’t it? The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein is next up on my list. You really don’t hear too much about the people who come in after a tragedy and clean up, do you? The only other time I’ve seen this topic mentioned was in the movie Sunshine Cleaning.

I’m very intrigued with this topic and the reviews for the book are all positive raving about the author’s amazing ability to capture the story behind the scene.

Take a look:

Do you know who cleans up a murder scene? It’s not the police or the paramedics. It’s people like Sandra Pankhurst, a trauma cleaner for whom death and decay are a part of life. Sandra’s trauma work includes crime scenes and floods, real estate agents, executors of deceased estates, and charitable organizations. All call on Sandra to deal with lonely deaths, suicides or cases of long-term property neglect, where homes have fallen into disrepute due to the occupier’s mental illness, drug or alcohol addiction, aging, or physical disability. Sandra comes to know her clients as well as they know themselves; she airs out their smells, throws out their weird porn, their photos, their letters, the last traces of their DNA entombed in soaps and toothbrushes. She does not, however, erase these people. She couldn’t. She has experienced their same sorrows.

This is the fascinating true story of what happens after a disaster; what happens when the dust clears and all that’s left is a mess to clean up? You call Sandra, who arrives to make order out of chaos.

I’m gearing up for any traumatic and troubling details which are to be expected in a book about cleaning up crime scenes. But I know this is going to be one of those books where I can’t stop reading and will be raving about it when I’m done.

I am very iinterested in anything about the trauma cleanup. This book did open my eyes to the cleaning of differnt types, ie: drug overdose, etc. The book was an ok read. I would have liked to read more about the actual clean-ups and less about the author's life as a transgender. The book also goes into details about his life as a man, marriage , children, etc. The books title leads you to believe that the book is about trauma cleaning. Yes, the book was about that, but to me focused more on her life. Yes, Sandra Pankhurst has had a rough life, and i applaud her for keeping on, but if I wanted to read her life story, I think that should have been a seperate book. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

While I thought the book was very interesting, the ending wasn't satisfying. I would have liked to know how Sandra's health is now, and whether she is still working.

We all know about crime scene investigators, umpteen TV and their spin-offs and loads of crime fiction have given us insight into what CSI’s do and how they do it. But what happens after the police and investigators have left a gory crime scene? Who gets the blood out of the carpet or the brains off the wall? Crime scene, or trauma cleaners like Sandra Pankhurst step in to make the violence and gore disappear. From suicides to murders to unattended deaths, Pankhurst has dealt with them all. And it’s not just the obvious work, like cleaning up the biohazards left behind, she often has to remove all traces of a person’s life from a home, their books, photos, clothing and more. Through it all. Pankhurst must maintain composure and a professional attitude, but that doesn’t mean these crime scenes don’t affect her. This is a fascinating, gross and often sad story of a woman who does what most of us can’t even imagine