Read in July 2013
The Mystery of Mercy Close, by Marian Keyes
Four Stars
Marian Keyes finishes up her Walsh sister titles with this story of the youngest, Helen. In the last Walsh outing, Anybody Out There, which focused on Helen’s older sister Anna, Helen was featured in an annoying subplot about her latest makeover as a private investigator. In The Mystery of Mercy Close, that job takes center stage, with Helen a bona fide investigator on the case of a boy-band member who goes missing a few days before the group’s reunion concert. But this isn’t the lighthearted Helen of earlier Walsh titles. Since the last Walsh outing, Helen has suffered a nervous breakdown and been hospitalized for depression. In this novel, she can feel the darkness descending again, hovering just out of sight of her family, lover and friends as she works the case. Helen’s struggle with depression mirrors that of Keyes, who returns to fiction with this novel after taking a timeout from writing to deal with her own problems. Keyes fans who want a jaunty laugh-a-minute story may be disappointed with Helen’s story, but as she did in This Charming Man, once again Keyes has found a way to marry a very real depiction of a serious problem that some women face with an up-to-the-minute contemporary story that captures life as it is lived now.
Past Perfect, by Susan Isaacs
Two Stars
I’ve been a big fan of Susan Isaacs for years, but this novel simply doesn’t measure up to her earlier work. The elements of character and plot in this story seem lifted from a list of best bets for bestsellerdom: CIA backstory, check; TV production frontstory, check; unsatisfied have-it-all heroine, check; mystery that draws her back into clandestine work, check. The elements are there, but I felt my buttons being pushed every step of the way. And those add up to something unbelievable with secret meetings, a superspy, and an action ending that might be acceptable from an amateur wannabe working on a first manuscript but don’t measure up to what one expects from an accomplished commercial novelist. As a result I’m putting Isaacs on my two-strike and you’re out list: If her next book similarly disappoints, she’ll join some other brand-name bestsellers (Nelson DeMille, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly) on my list of authors who are no longer worth reading.