Book Review: The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

Helen Walsh doesn't believe in fear- it's just a thing invented by man 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 person case/ Money is tight- so tight Helen's had to move back 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 she feels connected to Wayne, a man she's never even met. 

 Marian Keyes is back with a wonderful new book. The Mystery of Mercy Close is a Walsh family book, this time focusing on Helen. At the start of the book, Helen is pretty low, she has no work, no flat and her depression is rearing it's ugly head.She doesn't want to take anything from her ex-boyfriend Jay Parker but she is desperate, so when he offers her a missing person case, she simply can't say no. It's a pretty exciting case;. Wayne Diffney from huge Irish boyband Laddz has gone missing days before their big comeback gig. Helen can't stand to be around Jay, especially now she has found Artie. But can she deal with Artie's family baggage and can he deal with her depression?
The Mystery of Mercy Close struck so many chords with me. Marian Keyes writes honestly and in-depth about depression. Having suffered with depression myself, I greatly identified with Helen and the battle she faces on a daily basis. I think depression and the feelings it creates can be so hard to explain to others but there were so many times when I read this book when I thought yes it is exactly like that.
Whist The Mystery of Mercy Close has a serious side, it still has a huge amount of Marian Keyes humour. Marian Keyes always writes about the serious side of life but somehow manages to create a variety of laugh out loud moments with her characters and the situations she places them in.
I have always been a massive fan of Marian Keyes and I have read all of her books. Keyes truly is a fabulous writer and I do not think that anybody will be disappointed by The Mystery of Mercy Close.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5

Many thanks to the lovely people at Michael Joseph for sending me a copy of the book to review, The Mystery of Mercy Close is published today!