The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages - 508

Publisher - Penguin books

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Helen Walsh doesn’t believe in fear – it’s just a thing invented by men to get all the money and good job – 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 – 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 days’ 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.



My Review

So I think the first thing I would say is this book is a bit darker in some of the themes than any of her others, well that I remember. Don't get me wrong there is still some laughs, hilarity, some oh no she/they didn't and jaw dropper moments. However the book centers around Helen Walsh and she is a very unique individual. She doesn't seem to have a filter, she struggles to gel with people, she is abrupt, brutally honest and has mental health issues. Now I don't often put trigger warnings, I do tend to highlight themes without spoilers but I am putting a trigger warning here so if you have issues with dark mental health/self harm - stop reading here.

Helen is a private detective, she is dealing with some personal problems and the work and focus is good for her. Her new assignment is helping track down a member of a previous very popular boyband member, the band is getting back together (minus the one who burst to great stardom) and now Wayne is missing. We follow Helen tracking him down, working with her ex boyfriend, awks much, looking for a famous dude and trying to keep the black dog (depression) at bay.

The investigation is interesting and how she manages to work the case and juggle so much in her personal life. The mental health stuff, her struggles with her depression, how her family reacts to it and how she herself deals with it. The book jumps around a wee bit and I think that helps to cement the way Helen is and how she gets through her day to day life. I think Keyes does great infusing humour with some really tough/harsh real life topics. Depression, self harm and all the darkness that can go with it is throughout the book along with infidelity, splashes of humour, regular and dark, family and obvs the missing celebrity. We get a peak into how the world of celebrity looks through Helen's eyes and the access she gets through her job.

I don't really know how I feel about this one, I liked parts of it, I think if you have had a history of depression or had any battles with mental health you will take something different. Understanding, empathy, maybe even just feeling "seen" because despite this being a fictional character/book the author has done due diligence with the topics, if you know you know. Overall 3.5/5 for me this time, I am missing gaps in the Walsh books I am sure so I need to catch up with them. Yes I have read them out of order *twitch* but they can pretty much be standalones.

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Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages - 656

Publisher - Michael Joseph

Source - bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together - birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they're a happy family. Johnny's wife, Jessie - who has the most money - insists on it.

Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . .

Everything stays under control until Ed's wife Cara, gets concussion and can't keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny's birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets.

In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it's time - finally - to grow up?


My Review

I do love Keyes books you get to leave your own life and woes behind and jump into someone elses and Keyes does give us some class characters/dramas. Ed, Liam and Johnny are brothers and couldn't be more different. We follow their relationships, family gatherings and everything in between.

The book opens with a family gathering and Cara, Ed's wife, tells some home truths after a knock to the head and some shocks to the family. We then flip to six months before the event and get to know the characters.

Some we love, some misunderstood and we get more depth as we go on. Dysfunctional relationships at it's best. I am struggling to read with a lot going on at home, lack of sleep etc however despite this being a chunky monkey over 600 pages I got through it in 4 days.

There are a lot of issues these folk are experiencing, some will be very hard hitting with some people. Second marriages and the fall out, mental health issues, relationship issues, families, wealth, popularity, money issues - it has a whole bag. Some characters you will love, some not so much and all you want to know what is coming next. This isn't my first Keyes, it won't be my last, 4/5 for me this time.

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The Break by Marian Keyes

The Break by Marian Keyes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and over 4 days

Pages - 576

Publisher - Michael Joseph

Source - Book shop

Blurb From Goodreads

'Myself and Hugh . . . We're taking a break.'
'A city-with-fancy-food sort of break?'

If only.

Amy's husband Hugh says he isn't leaving her.

He still loves her, he's just taking a break - from their marriage, their children and, most of all, from their life together. Six months to lose himself in south-east Asia. And there is nothing Amy can say or do about it.

Yes, it's a mid-life crisis, but let's be clear: a break isn't a break up - yet . . .

However, for Amy it's enough to send her - along with her extended family of gossips, misfits and troublemakers - teetering over the edge.

For a lot can happen in six-months. When Hugh returns if he returns, will he be the same man she married? And will Amy be the same woman?

Because if Hugh is on a break from their marriage, then isn't she?

The Break isn't a story about falling in love but about staying in love. It is Marian Keyes at her funniest, wisest and brilliant best.




My Review

Hugh and Amy have been through so much in all their years together, Hugh has had a recent bereavement and no one could have foreseen just how much it would change things. Hugh wants to go on a break, whether Amy agrees or not. Six months travelling, doing what he needs to but he isn't leaving her, it is just six months and he will be back. Everyone has an opinion, Amy doesn't know how to feel but she has six months to work it out right?

Oh I do love Marian Keyes, no matter how serious the topics you always get an injection of the irish humour. This is a hard hitting book and will be for some readers as infidelity plays a large part, extra martial affairs and the fall out/impact of people's decision/actions and consequences.

I love love love the wee granny, Amy's mum. I tweeted the author and asked if she is getting her own book, she really should do, she is comedy gold and just a great character. I experienced so many emotions reading this book, anger, horror, laughter, joy, sadness, outrage, uck it is just a grand book that gets you het up and engaging in what is going on. I went through stages of loathing a few of the characters, actual rage at the selfishness but all in all it is a grand read and I look forward to the next from Keyes, 4/5 for me this time.

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Angels by Marian Keyes

Angels by Marian Keyes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time Taken to Read - 6 days

Blurb From Goodreadss

After catching her husband having an affair and being fired from her job, Maggie Walsh suddenly finds her perfectly organized existence has become a perfect mess. She decides, for the first time in her life, to do something daring -- and flees to her best friend, Emily, in the faraway wonderland of Los Angeles. In this mecca of tanned, beautiful bodies, unsvelte, uncool Maggie is decidedly a fish out of water. Yet, overnight, she's mixing with film folk, pitching scripts, even experimenting with sex -- and discovering that the end of a marriage is not the end of the world.

My Review

Maggie discover her husband is having an affair and as is always the way, things go from bad to worse when she is fired. Rejected, alone and upset she turns to her friend for support who happens to live in Los Angeles. Maggie leaves behind her troubles and decides to do something different and daring and embarks upon an adventure that makes her question everything she knows about herself.

I have read one of the Walsh tales before and from what I remember I really enjoyed it, this one was a mixed bag for me. Maggie was very annoying, she was a doormat in her response to her husbands betrayal, her encounters that followed after and even in some scenes with family members. You wanted to scream at her, well I did, get a back bone woman! Her character was fairly annoying and you just wanted her to do something, one of her relatives called her plain or vanilla yogurt and they had her bang to rights.

That said the book is enjoyable and very much chick lit. You follow Maggie to a strange place where everyone is thin, bleached, manicured and tanned to within an inch of their lives. We follow her journey of how she copes after finding her husband has betrayed her and now after years being safe and married she is free and single.

Some of the book is really funny, I love her family especially her mum and the fake tan part, reminded me of my mum and some of her antics. In between Maggie's outings and finding herself she slips back to the past and we slowly learn how her and Garv, her husband, got to be in the rut they ended up in.

I found some of the story slow going and a touch padded and other parts where very well done, an in between 3/5 for me. I have read this author before and I am sure I will pick her up again.

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