Clean Slates
Olive Hunt Book 1
Brianna Labuskes
Thomas & Mercer
August 2026
Clean Slate by Brianna Labuskes is a psychological thriller about a crime scene cleaner trailing a serial killer.
“I wanted a slice into crime solving that wasn’t a detective. I just kind of wanted a unique angle. I saw this movie, Sunshine Cleaning with Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, who were sisters who started their own crime scene cleaning business. It focused on the emotional side. It was very uplifting and that occupation always stuck with me. I always thought there were so many cool opportunities to delve into those skills. I thought, that’d be so cool as a mystery, an amateur sleuth, who doesn’t have to follow the rules of the police. I thought that would be a fun aspect of it.”
Readers meet Olive Hunt, a crime scene cleaner who, for nearly ten years, channels her childhood traumas into erasing the suffering of others. She doesn’t investigate crimes for a living but cleans up after them. Every reminder of violence is part of her daily routine. Her experience of restoring horrific crime scenes has given her an uncanny ability to recognize when something isn’t quite right. This allows her to notice details others overlook.
“I wrote her as quirky, funny, self-deprecating, and strong. She had a tough childhood. She grew up with a mom who had contamination OCD, and that really shaped a lot of who she was, mostly because she’s scared of getting this as well, because it could be genetic. Also, she went through this childhood where she knew her mom was abusing her out of willfulness. It was just she was trying to get her clean. She was trying to save her life in her own mind and constantly calling her dirty was traumatic. She wears funny t-shirts, which brings a moment of levity before she goes to these dark crime scenes. She really works hard to balance out her life. And she also went through a bunch of therapists who, I think helped her, where she kind of learned to understand herself better through that. That’s why she’s kind of a self-aware character as well.”
When Olive notices unsettling similarities among three crime scenes, she no longer dismisses her instincts. She realizes the three murders she has cleaned up are related. Olive knows what the police refuse to see; these aren’t suicides. They’re murders staged to perfection where the killer is leaving her breadcrumb clues. The killer knows she’ll clean up after him and wants her to follow his clues.
“I always wanted to tell a story how lower income people get screwed over by wealthy corporations. And this felt the right moment to do it when all the mystery pieces started coming together. There are a bunch of people tied into the mystery, although, a lot of it is gray. I really love exploring that because I want readers to understand why people are making the decisions they’re making and sometimes, they’re just evil. And I love having the layers.”
She lives with contamination OCD, inherited from her mother, who abused her. These compulsions shape nearly every part of her life forcing her to shower multiple times a day and scrub her hands until they are raw.
It was a different take on a murder mystery. The story shows the challenges she faces and the resilience she has developed. Although involving the police, the story becomes interesting in her doggedness to figure out what’s really happening and who she needs to protect.
