Missing, Presumed

A missing person, crime fiction novel. There may be a lot of these available, but few I have read have been as uniquely written as this one. I say that, because this book heavily focusses on the lives of the police officers investigating the murder, rather than the loved ones of the missing and I really enjoyed that.

Although we are taken on the mystery tour that is the investigation, to try and discover what has happened to Edith Hind, who has disappeared without a trace, our main protagonist is DS Manon Bradshaw, one of the team tasked with finding Edith. And DS Bradshaw is a complex character, with a slightly destructive streak when it comes to her personal life. As much as we weave our way through the investigation, we also do the show more same through the mind set of Manon and her complicated history with her family, the effect the loss of her mother at a young age has had on her outlook on life and her surprise at finding herself falling in love with an unlikely candidate. As I said, I enjoyed the fact that the novel looks at this as a main theme and not just a supporting storyline.

The author also gives a lot more time to the other characters within the investigation team than I have seen done in other crime novels, for example, the ever positive and optimistic Davy - Manon's outlook polar opposite and also best friend Bryony.

This book never got too heavy and intense either, like so many crime books can, where you are reading graphic and horrifying scenes. There is a lot of humour injected, particularly the conversations between Manon and Bryony when dissecting Manon's latest internet dating disaster, but I didn't find this took away from the excitement of the plot in any way, shape or form.

Written in third person, the chapters are broken down into individual character viewpoints and I felt this really helped keep the pace moving and narration varied. The investigation was written from a very realistic viewpoint - making clear what a mammoth task something like a high profile misper is like for the police, and also demonstrating how easy mistakes can be made, because, after all, police are only human beings trying to do the best they can - instead of sensationalising it.

If you want a crime fiction novel with a difference then you will certainly enjoy this book and I am looking forward to reading more from the DS Manon Bradshaw series. show less

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

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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

Beautiful, rich, and academically brilliant grad student Edith Hind has disappeared into the night without a trace, leaving signs of a struggle. The Cambridgeshire police department sifts through the sparse clues, interviewing the boyfriend who reported her missing, the friend who last saw her after a night out with other grad students, and her upperclass parents. Meanwhile, the media latches on to the case, throwing shade about another "misper" case that was poorly handles several years earlier.

Detective Manon Bradshaw is 39, single, and desperate. The first thing we learn about her is that she's been resorting to dating websites for two years with no success. Despite her bleak attitude, she's somewhat likeable. See the truthful dating show more profile she writes in her head:

Misanthrope, staring down the barrel of childlessness. Yawning ability to find fault. Can give off WoD (Whiff of Desperation). A vast bottomless galaxy of loneliness. Educated: to an intimidating degree. Willing to hide this. Prone to tears. Can be needy. Often found googling "having a baby at 40."
Age: 39
Looking for: book-reading philanthropist with psychotherapy training who can put up shelves. Can wear glasses (relaxed about this).
Dislikes: most of the fucktards I meet on the Internet.

Her partner, Detective Davy Walker, is her opposite -- 26, eternally optimistic, and saddled with a girlfriend from hell. In his spare time, he works with at-risk kids and goes for long distance bike rides. Manon and Davy are just two members of the team trying to solve Edith's disappearance, but they're the first on the scene when Edith's boyfriend reports her missing and they're the two we get to know the best outside of work.

The novel, like the investigation, is slow going. Edith had a "complex love life" and a lot of strong beliefs. She refused to keep her money (which comes from rich daddy) in a bank, grows chard with her gorgeous, but stuffy boyfriend at their off-campus cottage, and is active in an anti-rape group. Was any of this cause for her disappearance? And, as days and then weeks crawl by, is there any chance of finding her alive? When the body of a teenage boy from London washes up in the river, is there any connection to Edith's disappearance?

The first half of the novel is slow. I kept reading because I liked the characters and wanted to see what happened to Edith. I did not see the conclusion coming at all, and yet it was fairly believable except the "crime scene" crap -- broken wine glass, blood, coats on the floor, etc. That all seemed a bit contrived. Too drunk to remember if she left the door open, but not too drunk to sneak away to the prearranged meeting spot without being seen?. Would I read another book featuring Manon? Maybe. Would I read another book about Davy? More likely. show less

Not a bad read - A missing persons case is at the core of the story although there is much more going on character-wise. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw has just returned from another internet date gone wrong and is unwinding listening to her police radio when a report comes in of a missing woman. Edith Hind—daughter of Sir Ian Hind, physician to the royal family—has gone missing. Her flat door left open, blood at the scene, and she hasn't taken her handbag, keys, or phone. Bradshaw realizes how big this case is, and that the first 72 hours are critical in any missing persons case — you find the girl, or you look to recover a body.

The story unravels through multiple perspectives. Steiner develops her characters through their show more personal lives and relationships. I feel like we've only scratched the surface with Manon. She is a character with many layers and I like how a woman in such a powerful position was juxtaposed with such vulnerability with love and relationships. I can't wait to see how she develops over the series.

This was my first Susie Steiner read and I loved it! I could totally see this as a BBC show, a dark copper drama like Luther or Broadchurch. In fact, Davey reminded me of Justin Ripley from Luther. show less