Helen Fitzgerald- Worst Case Scenario

Mary Shields is a moody, acerbic probation offer, dealing with some of Glasgow’s worst cases, and her job is on the line. Liam Macdowall was imprisoned for murdering his wife, and he’s published a series of letters to the dead woman, in a book that makes him an unlikely hero – and a poster boy for Men’s Rights activists.

Liam is released on licence into Mary’s care, but things are far from simple. Mary develops a poisonous obsession with Liam and his world, and when her son and Liam’s daughter form a relationship, Mary will stop at nothing to impose her own brand of justice with devastating consequences…

I don’t know about any other bookseller but I am just waiting for the day when someone says, “You wouldn’t by any chance have any books where Irvine Welsh is channelled through the madcap world of a slightly unhinged menopausal woman would you?” To which I could triumphantly declare that yes, I have the very thing. Having read and reviewed Helen Fitzgerald’s books before, I think it really is fair to say that there are few contemporary writers that display the natural versatility and scope that she so confidently displays from book to book. For this reason alone, her books are unerringly readable, and as she turns her acerbic and probing gaze on, in this case, a woman under extreme pressure for a whole variety of reasons, you are never quite sure where she is going to take you…

Throughout Worst Case Scenario we become fully immersed in the world of Mary, an ageing criminal-justice social worker, grappling with a host of unpleasant clients, the daily struggle with petty bureaucracy, an over-reliance on illegal, and legal stimulants, and the nefarious onset of intense menopausal symptoms. Oh, and her perceived involvement in the suicide of one of her clients, an entanglement with the #MeToo movement, and attracting the hatred of pretty much every ‘cuckolded’ man the length and breadth of the nation. All told there’s quite a lot going on in Mary’s life, which becomes increasingly difficult with her son’s involvement with the daughter of said suicide victim, and the growing strain on her relationship with her husband Roddie. It’s all here: misogyny, misandry, perversion, hot flashes, and a pervading feel at times of a woman drowning, not waving.

As totally unhinged as this all sounds, Fitzgerald absolutely takes the reader through this strange and almost hallucinogenic world, where depravity and constant self doubt plague Mary’s life, but where Mary meets each challenge with all the subtlety of a blunt instrument, and with all the tact of the aforementioned too. She is a real force of nature, and despite her numerous flaws and the frustration she arouses in the reader, I liked her very much. Would I want her job? No. Would I want her ballsiness? Absolutely.

I’ve never had cause to refer to Greek mythology in a review before, but there’s a first time for everything, but Fitzgerald really does summon up the Muses of comedy, Thalia  and tragedy, Melpomene  in this book. Cut through with dark humour, moments of excruciating discomfort, Fitzgerald balances her razor-sharp comic touch, with moments of extreme pathos and heartbreak, carefully harnessing the incidences of psycho-drama with the inherent need for the pace and suspense of any compelling psychological thriller. Taking a diversion from Greek mythology to the film Jumpin’ Jack Flash (yeah, stay with me), Whoopi Goldberg declares that she has the face of a woman on the edge, and that’s how I saw Mary, and I loved her all the more for it.

Worst Case Scenario is one of Fitzgerald’s best books to date, in its relevancy and very unique spin on a whole host of social, criminal and women’s issues. Would absolutely recommend this one…

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