Manon Bradshaw is smart, competent, and lonely. She’s a Detective Sargeant in Cambridgeshire, and while she is having exactly the level of career success she looked for, she spends her off hours trying to build relationships from Internet dates she doesn’t really want to be on. Some of her actions made me think, “Urgh! Don’t do it!” But her actions are what a lot of people do, so it rang true in a way that can be hard to capture on a page. When a […]
Missing a Title
Susie Steiner’s Missing, Presumed is the first in a new series of mystery novels about Manon Bradshaw, a British detective with wild curls, laser focus and a complete lack of a personal life. I mention the curls not because I think it’s a particularly important character trait, but because it seems to be referenced more than any other identifying characteristic. Manon has trouble sleeping; to soothe herself to sleep she listens to a ‘borrowed’ police radio – not the lullaby of a normal well-adjusted adult. […]
Gone without a trace
3.5 stars. Missing, Presumed starts with Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw at yet another lackluster internet date. It’s an interesting way to start a mystery novel. I think it was meant to be cringe-funny, but I only found myself cringing. I think Steiner was probably trying to introduce us to our main character outside of work so we’d get a broader picture of who she is. Manon’s someone without a lot of close ties and so lonely that she listens to her police scanner for fun. […]