Description (from cover):'Helen Walsh doesn't believe in fear--it's just a thing invented by men to get all the money and good jobs--and yet she's sinking. Her works as a Private Investigator has dried up, her flat has been repossessed and now some old demons have resurfaced.
Not least in the form of her charming but dodgy ex-boyfriend Jay Parker, who shows up with a missing persons case. Money is tight--so tight Helen's had to move back in with her elderly parents--and Jay is awash with cash. The missing person is Wayne Diffney, the 'Wacky One' from boyband Laddz. He's vanished from his house in Mercy Close and it's vital that he's found--Laddz have a sell-out comeback gig in five day's time.
Things ended messily with Jay. And she's never going back there. Besides she has a new boyfriend now, the very sexy detective Artie Devlin and it's all going well, even though his ex-wife isn't quite 'ex" enough and his teenage son hates her. But the reappearance of Jay is stirring up all kinds of stuff she thought she'd left behind.
Playing by her own rules, Helen is drawn into a dark and glamorous world, where her worst enemy is her own head and where increasingly the only person she feels connected to is Wayne, a man she's never even met.
Utterly compelling, moving and very very funny, The Mystery of Mercy Close is unlike any novel you've ever read and Helen Walsh--courageous, vulnerable and wasp-tongued--is the perfect heroine for our times.'
My thoughts:
I have read all of Marian Keyes' books in this series and it has been some time since she has published one. So when I heard that another one was being released, I jumped at the chance to read this one. The only bad thing about reading a book in a series and it being a substantial time lapse between the books, is that you forget the characters and what they have been through. It came back a little to me, but still there were some things that I felt I should have remembered.
This book is a little scatterbrained, but the main character is, so I understand why the author did that. It is all over the place, with the past and the present. I loved Helen's character as she is so sporadic, you really don't know what to expect from her. I kind of liked that Helen kept me guessing. This was a good book, but I don't really think that it was on par with the others in this series. I seriously can't remember how much I enjoyed the other books in this series, but I do know that I enjoy this author immensely. When I was reading a lot of chick-lit, this author was one of my favorites. I'm not really into this genre all that much anymore, but it was nice to read something that I enjoyed in the past.
Helen has been hired to located a member of a prominent band that is currently doing some reunion shows. This member mysteriously dropped off the face of the earth and it is up to Helen to locate him before the show has to be cancelled and investors lose substantial amounts of money. Helen's antics make the reader laugh and it is interesting to read and try to figure out what she is going to get into next. All of the characters are quirky and have hidden secrets, and it was fun trying to figure out everyone and what makes them tick. Helen's humor is dark and suicidal at times, so if that doesn't appeal to you, then I don't think this book would be for you.
Overall Rating: 3
Title: The Mystery of Mercy Close
Author: Marian Keyes
Series: Walsh Family #5
Publisher: Viking Adult
Publication Date: April 9, 2013
Pages: 400
Genre: Fiction
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
