Book Review: The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

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 work 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 and Jay is awash with cash, so Helen is forced to take on the task of finding Wayne Diffney, the ‘Wacky One’ from boyband Laddz.

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. 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.

My Thoughts

As a first time reader of a Walsh sisters novel and the work of Marian Keyes I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to enjoy this without having read the previous books first, to my surprise this was not the case.

Initially I found myself struggling to get into this book but I stuck with it and a quarter of the way in I found myself loving everything about it, the characters had really started to come to life and the story itself was keeping me on edge wanting to see what was going to happen next.

I found myself loving Helen and her family, with the current financial climate and shortage of work everyone is experiencing Helen finds herself with no work and an unpaid mortgage. Her only option is moving back in with her parents, and at 33 she isn’t exactly proud of this.

Helen is a female private investigator so that instantly gained some cool points for this book, everyone loves a bit of a mystery and wants to be a spy don’t they? She is very funny and would appear to be a real head strong tough woman at first glance, but she is actually very vulnerable and has a lot weighing her down which also puts pressure on Helen to succeed at her job.

In this particular Walsh family novel centred around Helen she is hired to find Wayne Diffney a missing member of Irish boy band Laddz who are currently making a comeback.
The only downside to the job is that she was hired by her ex, Jay Parker. But Helen cannot afford to turn it down, he is paying good money for her help!

The search for Wayne see’s Helen going all out to find out anything she can about the ex boy band star who isn’t exactly pleased to be taking part in the big come back. Helen’s mother Mammy Walsh is a big fan of Laddz herself and manages to help Helen with what would normally be seen as useless knowledge which she had learnt from gossip magazines, nobody knows where Wayne is or why he would disappear like this, it is Helen’s job to find out where he is.

This novel really is a great look into who Helen Walsh is and we learn a lot about her from her job as a PI which is apparently not as exciting as most would think, to her serious experiences with depression and attempted suicide. We also get a good look into her current relationship with the sexy detective Artie Devlin and his family as well as her past relationship with Jay Parker.

I found myself asking questions with this book, wondering where Wayne is, why don’t Artie and Helen EVER express their feelings for one another? Who is Helen’s friend Bronagh and what happened to her? Is Jay Parker really an absolute douche? Do the other Ladzz really care about Wayne?

If you enjoy a good mystery that is light hearted but with a serious edge, romance, sarcasm and a lot of Irish laughs then this book is certainly the one for you.
Some may label it as chick lit but I found it to be more of a thrilling mystery novel with some added romance and a lot of humour.

Share this: