"Lucy McCarraher’s latest novel, Mr Mikey’s Ladies, is not only an affectionately cynical - and very funny - look at the sex lives of midlife women, but a perceptive portrait of the character flaws, complex insecurities and emotional conundrums within differing dysfunctional relationships.

The undulations, surprises, and well-tuned suspense in this tangled web of myriad misunderstandings are plotted with tremendous skill. The writing style, too, is very clever; everything you learn about each character is not "told" to you, but implied by simple comments that immediately strike a chord - Debra looks in the mirror at her good side, and then her better side. This is highly intelligent and accomplished writing, a technique in which many writers fail dismally.

The eponymous Mr Mikey is a hairdresser - sorry, colour and styling artiste - with his own salon in Balmain, Sydney’s trendy media suburb, set up in the house he shares with his wife Dolly and toddler Baby Bry, aka The Brat. It sounds like an ideal set up, but both Michael and Dolly are desperate to get out of their marriage of inconvenience.

His clients confide their tales of love and loss, pain and pleasure to "Mr M". Their scandalous stories, along with songs on the 70s jukebox left by deceased Bryan - Dolly’s brother and Michael’s lover - inspire him to write the musical he hopes will make him a star and release him from his duties as husband and father-figure. "The Ladies" is a totally original concept - except it has no original music at all. Mr Mikey selects the greatest ever girly pop anthems to illustrate the agony and the ecstasy of his ‘ladies’.

The premise is crazy but compelling, the plot stylishly created, but it’s the people themselves who reach out and pull you forcefully into their lives. Each character’s story is powerful, written with flippant humour yet recognisable from real everyday living. These are the women (and men) you meet on the street, do business with, shake hands with, and never give a thought to their deep stories behind the facades.

As well as Mr Mikey’s musical, smug Debra is writing a thesis on dysfunctional relationships and uses his salonistas as a focus group. When alcohol is discreetly introduced into the proceedings, salacious indiscretions and secrets emerge. Bella reveals the physical abuse she is suffering from her angry, gambling husband but manages to keep the identity of her lover - her best friend’s man - to herself. Debra never imagines for a minute that Estelle’s new toy boy is her own passionate partner. The discussion is a turning point in these ladies’ lives, from whence the sobering consequences of their infidelities are slowly set in motion as their stories unfold.

With tongue-in-cheek brilliance, Mr Mikey weaves his clients’ experiences into the script of his musical, allowing a gay man to question the very basis of straight relationships. As songs run through his head or the salon jukebox, Mr Mikey conjours up melodramatic, choreographed scenes for his Antipodean Mama Mia!, while his Desperate Housewives-turned-fantasy-stage-divas pour out their woes to gloriously camp, cheesy or soulful female pop anthems.

The novel’s candid, diary-like quality reveals Lucy McCarraher as a convincing story-teller and astute observer. Deception, suspicion and intrigue become an art form as the repercussions of a guilty web of close encounters are woven into this clever narrative. The author excels in conveying and analysing ambience and nuance. Witty sexual metaphors and innuendos abound, yet heated encounters between clandestine lovers are laced with tenderness. Poignant, melodramatic and hilarious, Mr Mikey’s Ladies is a tightly-edited, deftly-written novel that packs its pages with intrigue aplenty."

"Written with her usual fluency and panache: very funny in parts, very sexy in others. There is considerable cynicism but also humanity and affection. As a man I’m intrigued to read how women think about and discuss some of these intimate issues - it’s a very entertaining book."

-Mike Barnard, Macmillan

"This is great fun - gloriously camp in places and the stories of Mr Mikey’s clients are most entertaining. The steamy scenes are well done and the musical element very Mama Mia! With its idiosyncrasies and sheer originality, I do think it’s accomplished."

-Maxine Hitchcock, Harper Collins

"A lovely writer; it’s lots of fun and the plot is meant to be taken with a dose of salt."

-Louise Thurtell, Allen and Unwin

"This reminded me just how stylish - and funny - a writer Lucy McCarraher is, and there’s lots I enjoyed about it - it did make me laugh, I liked the clarity of the voice, the humour, the setting."

-Will Atkins, Macmillan New Writing

"This is not normally a book I would choose to read - in fact, I had managed to refuse for quite some time due to the subject matter! - and I finally did so only because I was asked to in my professional capacity, preparing it for publication. I came out LOVING IT! This book did an M.O.T. on my real-time heart attitudes. We tend sometimes to get so wrapped up in "our own kind of people" and the way we ourselves think and feel - everyone should be made to read something that’s this far out of their comfort zone once in a while, to get back in touch with how the ‘other half’ live and think and feel.

Despite my personal continued aversion to some of the content itself, I found myself enjoying the story hugely, very rapidly deeply immersed and, as the book continues the building events, in a froth at the edge of my seat. I was drawn into each life and could identify with and understand the various attributes of each woman’s struggles. I came away with great respect for each character, feeling as though I knew them, had lunched with them, had suffered with them, and had triumphed with them. It didn’t matter that they aren’t people I would "click" with in my own life, or whether I would identify with their lifestyles - I loved them and empathised with them anyway, and my heart broke for them. Which is really what life is all about, isn’t it?

A truly remarkable, brilliantly written book. Everyone should read it, whether or not they approve!"

-Jo Holloway, Sunberry Books