Missing, Presumed

After the tightly woven Lie Tree, I found this book even more painful than I would have otherwise – Missing, Presumed is basically the opposite: loose ends are left everywhere, including subplots, dropped characters and thematic references.

Look, Missing, Presumed is a perfectly workable beach mystery (although honestly, I think there are better pulp mysteries; I found every twist pretty telegraphed.) But it's clear Steiner's aiming to be the next Tana French with thematic elements woven into the mystery and the life of the investigators paralleling the investigation. However, I found the thematic elements lacked a coherent arc; it's clear that Steiner wants to explore the idea of families of choice (one detective “adopts” an elderly woman with Parkinson's, while another adopts a tween) and independence versus loneliness, but I just didn't find that there were much said other than the repetition of these elements.

But where things really fell flat for me was the lack of coherent narrative. The two major suspects are basically completely coincidentally connected to the case. Tony Wright? Investigated because they are investigating “all criminals in the area with similar MOs” (even though he's the only one ever mentioned) and he has an alibi that feels very pat. I was so confused by the detective's insistence that he was involved that I searched the ebook for his name not once, but twice to try to figure out what he was missing. Similarly, the person who got connected with the case because he was a dead body who turned up in a different area of town at a different time? Meanwhile, an extremely suspicious character that had a physical fling with Edith the night she disappeared is never mentioned or interviewed again. It was clear Steiner started with an ending and worked backwards to introduce her key characters without the theory of mind of how readers would perceive this.

So, ultimately, two stars mean it was readable without being actively painful, but I basically only finished it because I happened to be on vacation and it was on my computer from the library.

I'm always excited at the prospect of a character-driven police procedural (especially if it's British) and Missing, Presumed did not disappoint. The plot centers around a young woman who has gone missing after a night of carousing at her local university pub. Not an out-of-the-ordinary case, except that the missing woman is Edith Hind, only daughter of Sir Ian Hind, physician to the royal family. There were signs of a struggle at her home – broken glasses, blood, and tipped over furniture – but no ransom demands and no contact from Edith herself. The story itself plays fairly close to the traditional missing person mystery with lots of suspects, false leads, and juicy family secrets, but what really made it stand out were the wonderful characters.

The book is told from multiple perspectives, allowing the reader to get to know each character intimately. You hear all of their thoughts about the case, their boss, their significant others (including some particularly painful blind dates), and each other. Manon, the main character, is portrayed as both a tough and capable detective. At the same time, however, we get to see peeks at her private life, like her disastrous attempts at online dating. Davy, her partner, is an eternally optimistic man who worries about the plight of at-risk youth in the system and hides the miserable relationship he's in with his long-time girlfriend. Even more minor characters are fully fleshed out and you get a good sense of what the squad room is like.

Despite being a rather traditional mystery, this book touched on some social issues like at-risk youth and how they're shuttled through the system, the self-absorption and “cause hopping” of the idle rich, and the reasons some people turn to crime as a way of life. One thing I found particularly interesting was the reflection on how high profile cases are handled differently and whether that has an effect on the outcome of the case.

I enjoyed this book tremendously and I'm hopeful that this is the first book in a coming series.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

Loved every second of this one! Can't wait for the next.