Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner *** GUEST REVIEW ***

Mid-December and Cambridgeshire is blanketed with snow. Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw tries to sleep after yet another soul-destroying Internet date - the low murmuring of her police radio her only solace.

Over the airwaves come reports of a missing woman - door ajar, keys and phone left behind, a spatter of blood on the kitchen floor. Manon knows the first 72 hours are critical: you find her, or you look for a body. And as soon as she sees a picture of Edith Hind, a Cambridge post-graduate form a well-connected family, she knows this case will be big.

Is Edith alive or dead? Was her 'complex love life' at the heart of her disappearance, as a senior officer tells the increasingly hungry press? And when a body is found, is it the end or only the beginning? 

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner was published in hardback by The Borough Press on 25 February 2016, the paperback edition will be released on 8 September this year.



I'm really pleased to welcome back Helen Parris to Random Things today. Helen has guest reviewed for me before,  read what she thought of In Place of Death by Craig Robertson by clicking on the book title.   Helen is a guest reviewer from The Crime Book Club on Facebook, the group is made up of avid crime fiction lovers, both readers and authors and is a really friendly group to be part of.

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner - a review by Helen Parris

The lead character, Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw, is introduced right at the beginning of Missing Presumed. The story is written so that the reader can identify with her on an emotional level. She is a lonely person, estranged from her family, with few friends and is Internet dating, to find 'the one', she listens to the police radio to help her to get to sleep.

When student Edith Hind goes missing from her flat, leaving signs of a struggle and traces of blood, it is treated as murder. Each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the main characters, which reveals more of their lives and their personalities.

Everyone has secrets to hide as the story progresses. The book is beautifully written with wonderful, vivid analogies and metaphors, which took my breath away in places. This is a real literary crime read.

However, I felt this was at the expense of the plot, which was painfully slow and I became impatient with it on occasion.

Missing Presumed is not a fast-paced, gripping read that makes you turn the pages faster and faster in order to find out more, but is a leisurely read, for people who enjoy erudite crime.

 Susie Steiner grew up in North London and studied English at York University. Her first novel, Homecoming, was published by Faber & Faber in 2013

Susie Steiner lives in London with her husband and two sons.


Find out more about the author, and her writing by visiting her website www.susiesteiner.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @SusieSteiner1

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