Missing, Presumed

Here's another crime novel being promoted as the next The Girl on a Train, which it really, really isn't. I mean, they didn't even bother to call it The Missing Girl, Presumed or Missing, A Girl, Presumably on a Train. Instead, it's the debut in a new series of police procedurals following a DS named Manon Bradshaw who is not very good at social interaction, mainly because she's cranky and has terrible taste in men; she'll try anyone. But she is good at her job, as are the other two officers working with her to solve a high-profile missing persons case as the press dogs their every step. Edith is the woman who is Missing, Presumed. She's got a complex personal life and prominent parents, making her disappearance a dream for the press. show more

Susie Steiner's writing is much better than is usually the case in the debut of a new series (this is her second book) and she writes each of her characters as fully-rounded people, treated with empathy whether they are a distraught mother, an officer trying to do her job or a criminal. With her compassionate treatment of even those on the margins of society, the main character's messy personal life and the excellent pacing, I was reminded of the police procedurals of both Sophie Hannah and Denise Mina. I eagerly await the next installment. show less

The high-profile case of a missing woman, the daughter of an English royal surgeon, plays out in a typical police procedural manner - there are many leads that go nowhere, there are setbacks and pressure from government, management and the press, there are other cases which divide the characters' attentions. However, throughout it all, the greatest impediments are from the internal interpersonal struggles of the characters. Susie Steiner, the author of Missing, Presumed, is a master of using sensuous imagery to ground her narrative and draw the reader in ... into not the scene so much as the inner life of the characters, the ones who notice the depressing smell of dampness, mildew, stale cigarettes, the desperate helplessness of a fly show more noisily bashing itself against a window, the clear squeak when walking on fresh, powdery snow.

Each of the main characters face crises in their relationships with others, either brought on by the missing persons case or by it aggravating existing, simmering, conditions. This inner life of missing or aggrieved relationships and how each character deals with their personal demons, all in the context of a high-profile police case, provides the motivating forces in the story. We delve into the secrets, the guilts and the shames and the elations and fears of the detectives, the parents of the missing woman, even suspects and other persons of interest. We are drawn into each character's thoughts and emotions by clearly hearing the sounds they hear, sharply smelling the odors, joying in the warmth of the sun in the cold season and feeling, stroking, or shying away from the texture of life as each faces the stress of the case.

Thankfully, the sense of an actual criminal investigation does not get swept away by the psychological undertow in the story. Interviews with suspects are taped, theories abound as the Major Incident Team tries in vain to get a solid lead, linkages are hypothesized between the missing person and other cases, the media hungers for the most salacious details, management tightens the screws and the stress affects all, in different ways.

And the reader is seduced by the beautiful writing into caring for the characters and wanting them to find ways out of their personal as well as professional quandaries, is drawn into deliberating on what could have happened and who might be responsible. The mystery and the investigative details are satisfying, but in the end, the delicious, masterful prose, the dark humor, the visceral realism of the imagery and the sheer humanity of the characters are what is most gratifying. This is an excellent read!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. show less

In Susie Steiner’s first police procedural (and second novel), Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw of the Major Incident Team of the Cambridge police is something of a ticking time bomb. Single, approaching forty, her personal life in disarray and with no viable life partner on the horizon, she has been reduced to the humiliating ritual of internet dating. One night, after returning home from another disastrous romantic encounter, she hears a call (on the police radio she’s installed against regulations in her bedroom) for officers to report to the scene of a serious incident, which, when she arrives, at first glance appears to be a violent abduction. The missing woman, 22-year-old student Edith Hind, is the daughter of Sir Ian Hind, show more royal surgeon, and his wife Miriam. It is a high-profile case with an attractive victim whose personal life becomes the focus of intense media scrutiny and salacious speculation. Steiner employs multiple points of view—primarily Manon, her relentlessly optimistic colleague DC Davy Walker, and Edith’s mother Miriam—to tell a story that is kept moving briskly along as secrets are unearthed, a body is found, and the police spend their time following up a series of leads, some false, others credible. Steiner’s novel is a well-told tale of good intentions gone awry. Her characters are delightfully flawed. They make mistakes. They act badly for a variety of reasons. Some of her people are weak and selfish, others are simply unlucky. Her greatest gift to readers, however, is Manon Bradshaw, a smart, tough, thoroughly modern career-driven young woman: emotionally vulnerable, savvy about many things (men being the glaring exception), not above profane outbursts and fits of jealous pique, and whose personal struggles arouse the reader’s sympathy and interest. The mystery at the core of Missing, Presumed is resolved in a credible manner, perhaps just short of wholly satisfying, but by that time the reader is so completely invested in Manon and her colleagues at Cambridge MIT that the only thing we really want to be told is that the author is writing a sequel. show less

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner is a highly recommended well plotted character driven police procedural.

Manon Bradshaw, 39, is a Detective Sargent on the Cambridgeshire police force who loves her job, but longs for a more fulfilling personal life, including a baby. She can hear her biological clock ticking and has been trying an internet dating site lately, unsuccessfully. After another dreadful date, Manon, who typically falls asleep to the calls on her police radio, hears a call that sends her out to the crime scene.

Edith Hind, a 24 year-old Cambridge graduate student has been reported missing for 24 hours by her boyfriend. The front door was left ajar, there is blood in the kitchen, and her keys and phone are in the cottage they show more share. Edith is beautiful, smart, spoiled, and self-centered; she is also the daughter of Sir Ian Hind, physician to the royal family. Manon and her partner Davy know that the pressure will be on to solve this case quickly, as the media attention and her well-connected parents are going to make it headline news. As they are investigating all leads, another body is found. This time it is a young black man. Could there be a connection.

This is a well written procedural that also focuses on establishing and developing the characters. The story is told through alternating narrators, which Steiner is quite successful at navigating between and keeping the complex plot moving along smoothly through the many directions the investigation takes. Manon is a credible, flawed character who is successful at her job, but struggling personally. The other characters who narrate parts of the story are also uniquely individual voices and characters. Their different viewpoints add an additional potency to the investigation.

Since the novel is character driven, it has a more measured, even pace rather than utilizing many thrill-a-second surprises. There are a few twists. I will admit I wasn't totally surprised by the ending as I had surmised parts of it. This didn't lessen my enjoyment of the novel because it is character driven - and I needed to see if my suspicions were correct. Part of the pleasure in reading Missing, Presumed was found in the characters and the journey. It will be interesting to see if Steiner continues with these characters in another book and this becomes a series.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

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Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner is exactly the type of mystery that should appeal to a wide range of readers. I found nothing to particularly nitpick here, solid and engaging.

This is heavily character-driven, which is driven home by different chapters having different perspectives. While many first-in-a-series books emphasize character development so readers will become invested I think this will be a regular dimension of the novels going forward. I found myself as interested in Manon's life and views on life as I did in the mystery, and I was very interested in the mystery.

The strength of the mystery itself is what really put this in special company, many character-driven novels fall a bit short on the story from trying to establish show more characters. Not here, the story is very strong and is only enhanced by the care taken to develop characters. That said, those expecting just a mystery (lets face it, we often enjoy just reading a mystery with minimal investment in the protagonist) may well be surprised at the amount of peripheral information until they begin to care about the people.

Readers of both mysteries and literary fiction will find a great deal here to enjoy. The writing is excellent, characterization is well-rounded and the plot moves along briskly. Definitely worth reading and preparing for the next Manon novel next year.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads. show less

I didn't like the main character, Manon, very much until the very end. She's trying to hard to be happy but going about it all the wrong way. The actual plot line is a tragic series of missteps. In searching for the missing girl, a murder victim is found and a troubled woman is driven to suicide. There is a sense, for Manon at least, that the mistakes in her case make her stop and think about where she is going in her life. The plot was unique and I enjoyed the twist.

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From a plot point of view, 'Missing, Presumed' follows an investigation into the sudden disappearance of a Cambridge post-grad student. The circumstances of her disappearance mean she's classed as a high-risk missing person. The fact that her parents are friends of the Home Secretary make her a high profile missing person. As the police work to find her or, at least, find out what happened to her, her personal life comes under scrutiny and her friends and her parents receive unwanted media attention. This isn't one of those ticking-clock police dramas where everything has to be solved in seventy-two hours'. It's a longer, more arduous process and there are some surprises along the way.

The plot is interesting but it's mainly there to show more provide a framework for looking at the lives of the people touched by the investigation. That the story is told from multiple points of view by people with very different backgrounds, motivations and circumstances enriched the novel for me.

Centre-stage is Manon Bradshaw. 'Missing, Presumed' is the first of three novels about her. At the start of this novel, Manon is a Detective Sargeant with the Cambridgeshire Police. She's is thirty-nine, single, deeply lonely and struggling with the depressing business of Internet dating. She is not a happy camper. Manon explains that, in Hebrew, her name means bitter and she is often seen as living up to it.

Manon felt real to me. She's not the clichéd cop. She's not married to the job. She's not an alcoholic (although she does occasionally get drunk). She doesn't seek conflict with her bosses or feel the need to be a hero. She's a Cambridge graduate, with a degree in English, who reads people well and does her job to the best of her ability.

I liked that, over the course of the novel, we see her change. She makes mistakes. She hurts people she shouldn't, falls for people she shouldn't and ends up making an emotional commitment that she had no plan ever to take on. I found her interesting and I'd like to know what happens to her next.

We see part of the case from the point of view of Davey, a DC reporting to Manon, who is a much more warm-hearted and hopeful person. He's interesting in his own right and he provides another view of Manon.

The other main character is Miriam, the mother of the missing post-grad student. I thought she was very well drawn. She's a medical doctor who has let herself fall into the shadow of her very prominent physician husband but who has a strong mind and will of her own. Her perspectives on what was happening were very different from those of the police.

As well as creating characters who feel real, or perhaps as part of it, Susie Steiner lets those characters interact in surprising ways that go beyond the roles that you might expect of colleagues or suspects or family of the missing. I thought this worked very well.

There are two more books about Manon Bradshaw and I am keen to read them. I'll be sticking with the audiobook version, which is narrated by Juanita McMahon, who did a splendid job or creating recognisable voices for all of the characters. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.


https://soundcloud.com/harpercollinspublishers/missing-presumed-by-susie show less