Missing, Presumed was published by The Borough Press in 2016.  I received a free eARC of this book via NetGalley but that has in no way influenced my review.

Erin Kelly describes this book as beautifully written.  I couldn't agree more.  Missing, Presumed feels quite different to other books in the genre.  Steiner presents a pretty bleak story but with such style and eloquence that you can't help but be captivated.  This a slow burn police procedural with a less than perfect detective set in a wintery Cambridgeshire.  There was a heck of a lot of buzz about this book when it was first published so I knew I just had to read a copy and find out more.  I'm very glad I did.

DS Manon Bradshaw made this book shine for me.  On the verge of hitting the big 'four-oh' Manon is determined to find a husband (I'm sure a committed partner would be enough in all honesty, lol!).  She's fed up with her life and feeling so lonely, so turns to internet dating to find Mister Right.  Only finding Mister Very Wrong, Mister Oh No and Mister You Must Be Joking!  Falling asleep every night to the crackle and hiss of her 'borrowed' police scanner.  When Edith Hind is reported missing Manon is one of the first to hear the report over her scanner, and it's only around the corner so she gets dressed and heads out into the chilly night.  What she finds is a scene that causes some concern; the coats in the hallway are disturbed, the front door is open, Edith's phone and keys have been left behind and there are a few ominous looking blood spots in the kitchen.  An investigation to find missing Edith is launched led by Manon's Major Incident Team but they're aware time is running out.  When it's revealed the missing woman is the daughter of Lord Ian Hind, physician to the Queen and is good friends with the Home Secretary, the team know the case is going to be big news.  Can Manon and the team find the missing woman before it's too late...?

The book is written from multiple viewpoints which include Edith's mother, Miriam, Manon and a wonderful colleague of Manon's, DC Davy Walker.  I loved Davy - what a nice young chap!  Manon's DI, Harriet Harper, is also a great character I loved the relationship between the two of them.  I didn't like any of the Hinds who all come across as pompous, self-serving, self-entitled fools.  Even the devastated Miriam failed to stir any sympathy within me.  The other character I loved was Fly, a young boy who, having lost his brother, is taken under Manon's wing.  Their relationship absolutely blossoms and it's a joy to watch.

The investigation was slow going and at times I would have liked things to happen a little quicker.  The reveal was quite a shocker but I relished it.  It was very satisfying and I wouldn't have wanted the book to end any other way with hindsight.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would.  It's beautifully written and a wonderful character driven novel which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another book by Susie Steiner.  An intriguing mystery with a wonderfully flawed lead character who I hope to see a lot more of in the future.

I chose to read and review an eARC of Missing, Presumed.  The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Really enjoyed this. Couldn't work out whether I liked the main characters or not but would read another by this author

Great character, great writing, great plot...almost.
I can't quite decide whether I loved or hated this book. Manon made me wonder, others made me not. I think I really need to read it again, and not think 'oh I need to write a review' but just try to immerse myself in it.

This is a heavily oversubscribed genre and writers are giving us every kind of dysfunctional nutcase as a copper in the hope of triggering interest from a TV company. And many people would call Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw a dysfunctional nutcase – but, if she is, she is an exceptionally well realised dysfunctional nutcase. In fact, in many ways, this is a novel about dysfunction. What Susie Steiner gives us is:
• A whole cast of well realised, fully understood characters
• A well worked out plot
• A satisfying ending that matches both plot and cast.
There are some really tasty attractions. The missing woman, Edith Hind, is a stunning model of self-absorption reminiscent of the “hero” of John Lanchester’s The Debt to Pleasure. Her chap is another. And as for the lonely detective sergeant’s idea of wooing, if I thought she had my address, I’d turn out the lights and lock the doors.
Steiner is at home, whether writing about the upper crust or the underclass. On the one hand, we have a surgeon to the Queen who thinks nothing of calling his old school friend and Bullingdon co-member, now Home Secretary, to get the police moving in his preferred direction. On the other, we have a mother struggling (and failing) to give her 10-year-old son even the most basic survival tools (food. Warmth. Shelter). And we don’t hesitate to accept either portrait.
An excellent book, which I warmly recommend.

I was thrilled (no pun intended) to finally find a suspenseful thriller novel that was NOT compared to Gone Girl in the synopsis. Everything seemed promising, missing women, wealthy, well-known in their community parents, questionable boyfriend, secret relationships, had all the makings for an excellent read. Which is what lead to my disappointment when I found myself lacking for the desire to pick up the book, over and over again. I think out of every Character in this book, Davy was the only one who didn't entirely annoy me. While the book centered around DS Manon, I found her unbearable. She was lonely, came off desperate, negative, needy, depressing. I enjoyed seeing her find some kind of comfort and sense of peace in her own skin and life at the ending but that felt like it took a very long time to reach. I admit, the book did have some very intriguing twists that kept me up later than I should have been to just finish another chapter, it wasn't a total loss of a read. I'd give the follow-up novel a go, I have high hopes the general feel will be a tad different now that Manon has found some happiness in her life. I would like to thank Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this novel to read.

I’ve picked up and started, then restarted this book many times in a year.
I was totally not going to be defeated. Determined to finish it.

I found it highly confusing at the beginning as the POV characters were more than 3. My brains slowing down and I got foggy from having to think too hard.
Brain ache. A bit like toothache.

Anyway on my last attempt I did it. I reached the end.

The beginning was difficult to take in.
The middle bit was my favourite.
The ending a bit of a classic. No surprises there then.

I do however think this author writes well and is trying to pen a good story so I’m not put off to try another book from her

Missing, Presumed contained an intriguing case that showed that people aren’t always who they appear to be and the lengths that people will go to keep their secrets.

Late one night while listening to her police radio to help herself fall asleep, DS Manon Bradshaw hears an alert that Edith Hind, a Cambridge University graduate and the daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family, has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours. With few clues to go on, Manon knows that every second counts when it comes to finding Edith alive. With a microscope trained on Edith’s life, secrets begin to emerge making it clear her life wasn’t as perfect as everyone was led to believe.

Manon Bradshaw at thirty-nine has a solid position in her job at the Cambridgeshire police force but she has next to no personal life outside of a string of dates met via an online dating site. I had a really hard time connecting with Manon as she’s quite obsessed with finding the one and having children while at the same time putting little effort into finding a good match. She also bursts into tears at the slightest hint her life isn’t going the way she wants it to which grated after a while. When she actually got down to it and focused on her job though, she was great at it but there was way too much of her fretting over her disastrous life.

In addition to Manon’s POV, we also get chapters in the POV of Edith (the missing woman), Miriam (Edith’s mother), Helena (Edith’s best friend), and Davy (Manon’s partner). Miriam’s chapters tended to be longer with a lot of obsession over appearances and her daughter. Helena’s chapters were quite erratic and you could really see the toll the events occuring had on her. Davy’s chapters offer a much different outlook on the case than Manon’s as he is by nature a much more optimistic person than Manon is.

I found the investigation into Edith’s disappearance to be interesting and there were a few good surprises in the investigation. Ultimately though I did guess what happened to Edith long before it was revealed to us which was a bit of a let down. My biggest issue with this book though was the writing and I think the book was at least 100 pages too long. There were times where the characters’ inner monologues would go on and on and I found myself skimming large chunks of the book without feeling like I was missing anything. Also, the book switches between a few POVs that to me all sounded the same and I had difficulty telling them apart.

Overall, Missing, Presumed wasn’t for me despite the fact I liked the overall premise as I didn’t connect with the writing style or the characters.

I thought this was a great crime novel and I had not heard of this author before. The story is told by the individual characters themselves, this gives the reader a much broader perspective of each character and makes you feel like you know them quite well. There are pieces to put together and twists do not expect which makes this book very exciting. T

4 stars from me!

Cracking debut, I love the DS Manon Bradshaw character and as someone else has said on a review - I didn't want it to end.

Missing, Presumed is set in Cambridgeshire which made it all the more appealing to me as I am familiar with a lot of the place names and can picture them very clearly as I read.

Manon is just fabulous, she reminded me of a mix of DCI Matilda Darke, Vera Stanhope and Olivia Coleman - yes I know that is a meld of the living and the fictional! The rest of her team are also good solid players - I completely love Davy.

This is a brilliantly creative storyline, essentially focusing on a missing person yet with a whole host of side stories and sub-plots ensuring that the narrative stays alive, busy and engaging. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by Susie Steiner.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself “what would Bridget Jones be like as a homicide detective?” …then I think you’ll want to read this book.

Overall I found this to be severely lacking on the police procedural part and overwrought on the personal “character-study” side.

This “anecdotal, emotional personal story-time” style of writing is likely why the author draws comparisons to Tana French, but I’ve read Tana French and this in no way, is as poignant, complex or relevant in its attempts to create emotionally stirring connections to the prominent character POVs. To me, there was a massive disconnect between the “main” plot and the endless pages covering family stories and relationship issues and personal whining, none of which progressed the story or its themes.

The missing girl’s mother had a lot of POV chapters and she was mind-numbling dull in all her fretting and worrying that you read about again and again without forward motion, or reminiscing about family events and past conversations that, in the end, had nothing to do with the conclusion.

If secondary characters like that aren’t going to appear in future novels I don’t know why I have to spend so much time learning about things that ultimately don’t matter.

The main character, though, DS Manon, was the worst.

She is a 39-year-old woman who spends 90% of the novel being an insane girlfriend and crying about her empty uterus.

She was Bridget Jones without the humour or the joyful absurdity. This particular plot environment doesn’t give the space for an immature, neurotic character to be those things in a way that isn’t annoying. And I did not like her one bit.

It just didn’t work for me. It all felt…off. I total misfire when matching tone and behaviour and plot and characters. It’s one thing for a main character to be having relationship issues – if done correctly it can add a whole new layer of drama – but it’s something else entirely for a character, who’s supposed to be in charge and capable, to act like a fucking immature baby and turn the reader off. Manon was embarrassing and painful to read.

The main character completely missed the mark and therefore the whole book suffered. The unimportant, superfluous personal details of everyone else, that didn’t evolve them or their story lines into anything more interesting, dragged it down even more.

The only reason I kept reading this through the endless pages of things that didn’t matter, was to find out how the mystery wrapped up. And this book did the one thing that I can’t stand with mystery novels: at the very end, some random detail in thrown in so that everything can be solved and tied up a perfect Martha Stewart bow, when there was no lead up to this brand new information at any other point in the book.

This leaves me, as a reader, completely unsatisfied because there was literally no way for me to figure this out or play along.

Rating: this is a lazy mystery and a bad fictional drama with terribly immature characters.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I enjoyed it immensely. The book was a bit slow to begin with however once the plot began to unfold I found it enjoyable. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

For the first 75% of this book I was excited that a new star writer and a new detective had arrived. The writing was crisp, the plot intriguing and the inevitably flawed Manon Bradshaw a credible character. Then the writer seemed to start struggling with the complexities of the plot, and Manon's love life and her professional life took some highly unlikely turns until a slightly perfunctory conclusion. Maybe one or two characters could have been dispensed with, and the love interest made a bit more credible.

Turn a Blind Eye is the first in a series featuring DI Maya Rahman. It's set in London; following the funeral of her brother ( who committed suicide) DI Rahman investigates the death of the headmistress of her former school.

It's essentially a mix of police procedural and murder mystery, but along the way it explores numerous themes including cultural and religious differences and inner city tensions. On the whole it feels like a fairly accurate depiction of urban life in Tower Hamlets.

The plotting is complex with a few unexpected twists and cryptic clues to keep the reader guessing. The descriptions are detailed and there's a range if diverse and plausible characters whose motivations are well thought through. It's certainly an impressive debut and it's a series I'd be interested in following.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

This was my first Susie Steiner novel and I really enjoyed it. I very quickly warmed to the lead character Manon Bradshaw and I liked that the story was told from a number of points of view.
Not the ending I was expecting which is always a good thing. Well written characters and I would definitely read a second book in the series.

Many thanks to Netgalley for approving me to receive an ARC in return for an honest review..

Initially we are introduced to DS Manon Bradshaw who is looking for love, yearning for a family and feeling that her age is against her. Initially I had mixed feelings about Manon at first, but she definitely grew on me as the book progressed.

Manon is called in (inserts herself in) the disappearance of Edith Hind who is reported missing by her boyfriend. The initial evidence? A front door left open and all of the possessions that Edith would have taken with her are still in the home. The coats are in disarray, It is a snowy, freezing, Cambridgeshire night, yet Edith’s coat is among the others on the floor. and most concerning a small amount of blood.

Her boyfriend tells Edith’s (Extremely well connected and well known) parents that he has contacted her friends and none have seen her.

That is a summary of the beginning of this complex yet extremely well written book.

People and situations are not how they appear and Manon has to wade through this complex, extremely involved case, to get to the bottom of exactly what is happening and there is far more to be discovered than the whereabouts of Edith Hind.

I am left wanting to see more of Susie Steiner’s work, in particular more books involving DS Manon Bradshaw.



I was given a copy of this book by the Publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

A good police procedural with solid characters. A good read, kept me gripped.

Great, intricate thriller.
While the ending felt a bit to forced for me, I did enjoy the ride and learning about the characters and their backstories. Missing, Presumed really gave you the feeling that you knew DS Bradshaw and understood what made her ticked.

Make sure that you read this book as the first in a series. Persons Unknown is the next and it would spoil this one if you know what happens first. Good thriller for those who can take literature a bit tough.

What a crazy wild ride! I really found this story gripping and also at times gave me goosebumps. I'm not usually a thriller reader but this was great!