Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
My rating: 4/5 cats
look – a book involving a missing woman that ISN’T compared to Gone Girl!
it is however, compared to both tana french and kate atkinson, which are totally fair comparisons – kate atkinson for her jackson brodie novels, and tana french for … any of ’em.
it’s similar to tana french in that they are both character-driven british police procedurals, but this one seems slightly more weighted towards “character” than “crime.” this debut doesn’t have the same confident insider-vibe in its police parts as french, which is fine – lord knows i didn’t love tana french’s first book, and she didn’t become “TANA FREAKING FRENCH who can do no wrong” to me until her third. but it does have that same easy camaraderie and rivalry behind-the-scenes in the department, the characters are well-rounded, and she switches perspectives in a way that is both (pleasantly) frustrating and engaging.
the case we find ourselves in the thick of is a high-profile missing persons case involving edith hind; the twenty-four-year-old daughter of sir ian and lady hind, her father a prominent physician whose patients include the royal family. the door to edith’s home was found wide open, with indications of a struggle inside – coats fallen to the floor, a broken wineglass, a small amount of blood. there have been no ransom demands, but also no contact from edith since the night she left a pub wildly intoxicated and was seen home by her best friend helena.
DS manon bradshaw leads the investigation, questioning helena, edith’s family, her boyfriend will, and the usual inquiries and avenues of investigation are pursued, all of which come up empty. the story flits between the perspectives of, among others, edith’s mother, helena, manon’s partner davy, and manon herself, focusing on the details of the case but also branching much more widely out into the personal lives of the characters, most notably manon’s unfulfilling forays into internet dating.
manon is the most carefully-developed character in the book, and there’s the potential for her to become the center of a series in the future. i understand why the blurbs and other reviews are gushing over her as a character but i’m not instaloving her just yet. she’s good – she’s a strong character who’s realistically portrayed, fleshed-out into three-dimensional form – capable and tough and funny and driven, but also deeply marked by a desperate loneliness and vulnerability. i have zero problems with vulnerability in a character – i’m not someone who needs my female leads to be tough-as-nails and unscarred by the world, but there were a few scenes that made me cringe a little for her, and they were so incongruous with her professional comportment, it tarnished my appreciation a bit.
i did love davy, though, and i really liked seeing manon through his eyes – as a sympathetic friend/colleague who knows her well enough to see beyond her gruff exterior, but is not close enough to her to avoid mythologizing her in his own way.
the mystery itself plays out well but hews pretty close to the traditional bone – secrets, red herrings, false leads; the clock ticking as the trail grows cold, the pressures of the public and the media complicating the investigation and the reality of limited resources and other crimes pulling attention away from a case in which it is unclear whether they are dealing with a missing person, a homicide, or simply an impulsive rich girl scarpering off. steiner also does a great job in her awareness-raising treatment of tangential social issues like at-risk youth and in skewering the selfie-and-cause-addicted smugness of the narcissistic idle rich.
i am definitely interested in reading more by this author, particularly if this becomes a series, à la tana french, where each member of the department is given their own time in the spotlight to drive subsequent books. oh, and please more tony wright.
a very impressive debut, even without the power of smartfood-bribes clouding my judgment.
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i just got this in the mail, completely unexpected/unrequested – BUT it also came with a bag of smartfood, and for the record, I AM EASILY BRIBED WITH SMARTFOOD.
in related news, i already ate the smartfood.
dammit.
