Helen Fitzgerald is a hell of a writer. You know how I know this. I finished this book. This dreadful book. This book had absolutely no redeeming qualities. Everyone in it is an absolute fuck. You rooted for no one and yet.....I finished it. I finished it and I feel trashy and unclean. I need to take a shower. I am a horrible person. I actually laughed out loud many times. I am clearly broken inside and should seek help but damn can she write. ( )

Worst Case Scenario – Dark but funny

Worst Case Scenario is the latest outing from the bestselling author, Helen Fitzgerald. She has managed to conquer the disadvantages in life, being an Aussie, sentenced to live in Glasgow, with her husband, even I am not the cruel. Her wonderful sense of humour screams at you throughout this deliciously dark and funny thriller. The dark humour screams the dark truths at you and sometimes it is those truths we cannot bare to look at.

Mary Shields is an experienced probation officer, with over thirty years of experience, she gets to deal with the ‘dregs’ of society, and in her case the worst cases. She is getting hot flushes, possibly the menopause, the wine drinking, over worked and completely dysfunctional in work and in her private life.

When murderer Liam Mcdowall is set to be released on life licence, she is going to be his probation. So, when he is released, she will be the first person he sees, whatever he wants to do he has to ask her permission. Things are made slightly harder is that he has published a series of letter to the wife, he murdered. The book has made him a hero especially to Men’s Right Activists.

Things do not go well from the moment she meets him in prison for the last time before his release, when she meets Derek his agent, and his daughter Holly. Mary’s son falls in love/lust with Holly and the feelings are returned when they meet at an author event. Mcdowall misses his probation meetings and send Mary after him and breach him, as in contravention of his licence.

Mcdowall’s agent also has his problems with the law and decides to take Mary on and there can only be one winner. At the same time Mary decides to take the law in to her own hands as she wants to dish out the justice which the system clearly failed to deliver. What possibly could go wrong? Well besides the hot sweets, the drinking and the world out to prove that Mary is a man hater?

While at times being dark, the humour shines a light into the darkness, and while you cannot but have sympathy with Mary, she is a walking disaster area. Can Mary do what every probation officer has probably wanted to do, and keep her job, while flexitime really is getting on her nerves.

A fantastic dark and funny thriller that really does as the old cliché says, it is a page turner! ( )

I've read a couple of Helen Fitzgerald's previous books and it's fair to say she's not an author who holds back on the shock factor. However, with Worst Case Scenario she's gone a step further with her protagonist, Mary Shields.

Mary is a probation officer with thirty years' experience. She's also going through the menopause and she feels rage deep within her soul. It doesn't help that she is dealing with the lowest of the low, and all her bosses seem to care about is flexitime, ticking the boxes etc. It takes a special person to do the job and Mary is certainly that. But she's also close to breaking point.

It's one of her clients who pushes her over the edge and leads to the craziness that takes place in this book. It's like watching a car crash, knowing that Mary is going to snap, that she's wrong but also right.

I did love Mary. She absolutely says it as it is, no holds barred. Brave but foolish, I guess. I did a lot of nervous smiling and giggling whilst I was reading this book.

The writing is witty and acerbic, crude and direct and I did enjoy it. It's a fast-paced read as Mary lurches from nightmare to disaster and it certainly kept me interested. I wasn't overly keen on the ending and couldn't quite believe that that was how it was going to be wound up. Having thought about it a bit since, I can see that it does work and makes what happened all the more shocking, but I would still have preferred a bit more of a conclusion.

All in all, Worst Case Scenario is quite a ride. Fitzgerald has a quite unique writing style and I felt like punching the air when Mary gave people what for without feeling guilty about it. Isn't that a problem most of us have with stating our views? We don't have the confidence to not feel bad about the fact that we have an opinion? Well, no such problem with Mary. This book is great fun. ( )