Missing, Presumed

A Novel

By: Susie Steiner

Narrated by: Juanita McMahon

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

For listeners of Kate Atkinson and Tana French comes a pause-resisting literary mystery that brings to life the complex and wholly relatable Manon Bradshaw, a strong-willed detective assigned to a high-risk missing person case.

At 39, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep - and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind - a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family - has been missing for nearly 24 hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows that this case will be big - and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith's loved ones: her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, her patrician parents. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith's tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith's family but for Manon herself.

Suspenseful and keenly observed, Missing, Presumed is a brilliantly twisting novel of how we seek connection, grant forgiveness, and reveal the truth about who we are.

©2016 Susie Steiner (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"An extraordinarily assured police procedural in the tradition of Ruth Rendell and Elizabeth George." (Joseph Finder, author of The Fixer)

"A vein of dark humor pulses beneath this compelling whodunit with an appealing, complicated heroine at its center." ( Publishers Weekly)

"A highly charismatic and engaging story.... This novel stands out from the pack." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Not worth your time

Any additional comments?

I found this story to be very boring. It started off slow and didn't have many exciting or interesting parts. I kept listening and thinking it would get better towards the end, but it just never did.

Excellent writing, excellent narration!

An extremely well written story! Am looking forward to the author's next book. Reminds me of Ruth Rendell.

High on sub-plots low on suspense

liked the book, loved the performance. a fair amount of trivial subplots that didn't apply.

Caution: depression ahead!

On the bright side-- it's an interesting story with a decent mystery development, characters one comes to care about, and an excellent verbal performance.

The downside is that 9/10 of this book is about as thoroughly depressing as a book can be: loneliness, depression, isolation, abandonment, brokenness all described in intimate detail in between micro-steps in the plot. If you are the least bit depressed before starting the book, you may well be suicidal halfway through! That said, it all comes together in the end, isn't unexpected or jarring, and leaves you with a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds. Just be forewarned it's a LOT of clouds!

Loved this one.

Excellent character development and great understanding of the complexities of family and interpersonal relationships. Narration outstanding too! I'm looking for this author's other books right away.

Excellent mystery

I'm not sure if this is a mystery or thriller but it was wonderful! Highly recommend!

miserable character backstories

The mystery plot is fine, but some serious editing should have been done to scale back the agonizingly drab and unimaginative, faux-literary details about what the characters were going through in their personal lives. I almost couldn’t go on, when I was told that one of the detectives ‘’picked a satisfying piece of wax from his ear and rolled it between his fingers.’’ The situation was not improved by the reader, who had an uninspired range of voices.

Great, but very long read.

So many hits in this book: interesting story, humor, great writing, and a range of characters of various ages from different social classes. It feels a little churlish to note that the book might have benefited from some selective editing.

Brilliant

One of those rare police procedurals that is unconventionally well written, with fully developed characters and a good story, all conveyed with outstanding narration. That said it could have stood slightly tighter editing and is a bit too contrived but its overall excellence outweighs those critiques. Recommend.

A mystery lover's treat!

This is one of those books I couldn't put down, but didn't want it to end. I did read on Amazon that this author's next book is about this same character, which makes me feel a lot better - I don't want to say goodbye to her!

I can't say enough good things about this book. The characters are real, and at times very funny. I laughed out loud a lot! They're also full of issues, longing, vulnerability, and they tend to kick themselves around a bit, especially the main character.

The narration was superb. There are men's voices, women's voices, and children's voices, and everyone has a lovely British accent. With this book, the narration enhanced the story - which is often not the case with audiobooks. I haven't enjoyed narration so much since I finished "The Help" and "Angela's Ashes."

This book is on a par with those written by Tana French and Robert Galbraith. I wait eagerly for their next books, and this author has been added to that list.