Mary, Mary [Paperback]

Julie Parsons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 1999

He had the face of an angel but a mind of pure evil ...It starts with a phone call late on a hot Dublin evening. Margaret, an anxious mother, is desperately enquiring about her missing daughter. The police think she's overreacting and Detective Inspector Michael McLoughlin is the only one who listens. Then a young woman's body is found in the canal - battered, mutilated and broken. And one mother's life is shattered forever. Margaret must decide how far she will go to ensure her daughter's sadistic killer is brought to justice. By hunting him down will she become his next victim?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This first thriller by Irish television talk-show producer Julie Parsons became an overnight success in England and a high-ticket purchase by its American publisher. Here's why: it combines excellent writing with a strong, very moving story and a gimmick as big and shiny as the Ritz at its center.

Dr. Margaret Mitchell, who left Ireland for New Zealand when her daughter was just an infant, now returns 20 years later as a successful psychiatrist and expert on women's mental health. Shortly after she arrives in Dublin to care for her dying mother, Margaret's daughter, Mary, is brutally tortured and murdered.

I understand, thought Margaret, what happens when the heart stops pumping oxygen through the body, pushing its sweetness into every blood vessel. But I don't understand the loss of being, the negation of existence. It must be the reason why so many people believe in an afterlife. To make sense of the essentially meaningless. I know it in an abstract way, but I can't accept it. All I have is the knowledge that I will never see Mary again, that she has been taken from me and I will have to live with that. Until I, too, die.

Full of rage and sadness, Dr. Mitchell watches as a once-brilliant, now-boozy cop catches Mary's killer but botches the case against him and raises the possibility of his serving just a short sentence. Enter the gimmick--which we won't spoil except to point out that anyone who doesn't have suspicions about Mary's father hasn't been paying attention. Parsons makes both Margaret and Mary memorable characters who throb with vitality. The final, hot-button issue is that of retribution, and Meryl Streep is no doubt working on her Irish-New Zealand accent as we speak, for the inevitable film. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Narrated with stunning confidence and sophistication, Irish TV talk-show producer Parsons's first novel depicts the complex relationship between a mother and her daughter, who is murdered. Dr. Margaret Mitchell, a Dubliner who emigrates to New Zealand in 1975 shortly after the birth of her daughter, is now a well-known psychiatrist who has made her mark in women's mental health. When she returns to Dublin to care for her dying mother, Maggie is accompanied by her daughter, Mary, a vital young woman of 20. It is Mary's disappearance and the discovery of her viciously mutilated body that sets the story in motion. While some of the conventions of the crime novel seem inescapable (the attraction of Detective Inspector Michael McLoughlin to Maggie, the court scenes, the encounters between Maggie and the murder suspect), Parsons uses these events in unpredictable ways. Related alternately from the point of views of Maggie, the inspector and the murderer (whose identity we know, but whose motivation we learn gradually), each scene is beautifully paced and plotted, and even minor characters are deftly drawn and psychologically believable. Appearing in her mother's memory in a kind of instant flashback, Mary is vividly conjured, and Maggie's devotion to her poignantly portrayed. Parsons writes short, quickly paced scenes that raise the suspense level in taut increments, and her story is full of genuine surprises and fresh plot twists. While shocking, the novel's conclusion is powerful and convincing, totally in keeping with the characters Parson has drawn and with the complex psychological relationships she depicts. Already published in the U.K. and Ireland, the novel has also been sold in Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Japan, the Netherlands and France.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan; later printing edition (July 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330374869
• ISBN-13: 978-0330374866
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,862,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really good book!, October 12, 1999

By 

Heidi L. Marshall "A Librarian" (Belle Vernon, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mary, Mary: A Novel (Hardcover)

I just completed Mary, Mary, and I had to take the day off in order to finish it. This book is absorbing. The characters are unique and well drawn, the reader really gets to know them. The plot is full of twists, which kept me in total suspense. I highly recommend this book to fans of Minette Walters, and Ruth Rendell. Julie Parsons has done and excellent job. I am looking forward to her next book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping, tense thriller, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mary, Mary: A Novel (Hardcover)

I found this book rivetting. Normally I would not read a psycho-thriller such as this, but on the advice of a friend I picked it up, and subsequently could not put it down. This work is a well crafted piece of literature with attention to detail and build-up of characters I found fascinating. Ms. Parsons is a keen student of humanity, especially those on the edge of reality. One can feel the frustration and pain of Margaret, a mother torn by the abduction and brutal murder of her only daughter when she returns home to Ireland from New Zealand. I found the volley between past and present a twist that was most intriguing. This is certainly the stuff box-office hits are made of. No hesitation at all of recommending this excellent read!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate novel of psychological suspense., March 13, 1999

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mary, Mary: A Novel (Hardcover)

Fans of Elizabeth George's novels will love this book. It is a harrowing exploration of the psyches of both the perpetrator and the victims of a sadistic crime. The author interweaves three or four plot lines concerning the victim's mother and grandmother, an alcoholic policeman and other characters skillfully and seamlessly. "Mary, Mary" is not a "whodunit" and it is not a conventional mystery. Not only does the author deal with a crime of terrible cruelty and its aftermath, but she also shines a light on the secrets that we keep from ourselves and from others. Parsons shows how these secrets fester and poison our relationships; they sometimes destroy our lives. This is not a "feel-good" book, but for a first novel, it is an extraordinary achievement.