An enjoyable story of the disappearance of a band member prior to the reunion performances planned. Along with the humour of the story there was an informative exploration of the impacts of depression on the main character. ( )

Helen Walsh no cree en el miedo, pero lo que no puede negar es que el mundo se está desplomando a su alrededor. Es detective privado y cada vez tiene menos trabajo, la van a desahuciar de su piso y ahora vuelve a encontrarse con todos sus demonios.
Y uno de ellos es Jay Parker, un ex novio encantador, aunque nada fiable, que le pide que localice a un cantante desaparecido. En cinco días, Wayne Diffney tiene que tocar en un concierto muy importante, pero se ha esfumado sin dejar rastro. La relación de Helen y Jay acabó tan mal que ella se pone enferma sólo con oír su nombre. Además, ahora tiene un nuevo novio, Artie Devlin, muy considerado y muy sexy, y con quien se lleva de maravilla... Sino fuera porque su ex mujer, que siempre está por casa, y por su hijo, que odia a Helen.
Pero ella nunca obedece las reglas, ni siquiera las suyas, y su peor enemigo está en su propia cabeza.

Oh boy. My copy of this book was 614 pages long, and around 300 of those pages were too many. I like Keyes' humor, I like the characters, I even liked the plot and underlying themes of mental health issues. The writing was just waaaay to slow and meandering. This book would have required some really ruthless editing, and I have a feeling the only reason it got published as is, is the fact that Keyes was already pretty well established as a popular chick-lit author then this came out. ( )

Vintage Marian Keyes and laugh-out-loud funny in many places. She knows how to mix serious and funny, which is a very hard thing to do. And I enjoyed the mystery. ( )

Well I have to say after loving every novel in the Walsh Sister novels this latest one was a dud for me.

Focusing on the character of Helen Walsh, I thought was a good idea since I wondered about her, and the contradictions of how she behaved sometimes with her family.

Helen is the youngest of the Walsh sisters. Oftentimes brass and humorless she at the age of 33 has settled down into a life of being a private investigator. Working on a new job courtesy of her ex-boyfriend she is supposed to help find Wayne Diffney, a member of Ireland's biggest boy bands from the 90s. If that wasn't enough, Helen is also trying to juggle her boyfriend and his family.

I honestly found so many things wrong with this novel I don't know where to begin. For me, the signs of a good read is if I feel engaged the whole time and find that the narrative flows. This novel ultimately was boring and several times I fell asleep while reading it.

First, I found that the plot zig-zagged all over the place and was interwoven with Helen's medical issues in the past and present. Often times I would read and somehow Helen would be talking about her investigating and then flash-backing to when she dated her ex-boyfriend. It was maddening. I wish that Marian Keyes had just told the story from the past up to the present or just flash-backed once in a while and/or at least made the flashbacks sensible.

Second, when you read about why her former relationship ended it was just beyond stupid. I thought it be some big, dark, ugly thing (Ms. Keyes hinted at it in the novel) but instead it just ended up being a non-starter.

Third, and for me since I am a long time fan, you don't really get updates on any of the other sisters' besides Claire and Margaret. And what you do get is fairly superficial (at least it was to me) about their lives. Additionally, I wanted some back-story on everyone not just random throw away lines here and there on Rachel and Anna.

I suggest that if you really want to find out what has being going on with the Walsh sisters' in the intervening years see Mammy Walsh's A-Z of the Walsh Family: A Penguin Special from Viking. Somehow in a shortened format this novel actually did catch you up with former characters's.

I would only recommend if you want to find out the latest with all of the Walsh family, otherwise just skip this and definitely don't read this novel first. You should start with Watermelon and work your way through all of the Walsh sister novels in sequential order. Otherwise this one will be even more nonsensical than it already is without reading those novels first. ( )