Susie Steiner (1971–2022)

I really loved this.

The characters - Manon and Davy and Miriam in particular - and the mystery was good. It was slow and plodding - the grind of chasing every lead and going over things so many times, the impatience of upper management, the aggravation of the press. But it didn’t feel too slow, it just seemed pretty realistic.

I also liked that the author didn’t give Manon an easy out. She has so many bad dates, and then meets Alan. She likes him! And then she falls really hard and it’s over. Instead, she commits to a 10yo orphan Fly and reconnects with her sister. So a HEA of sorts, but not romantic!… (mere)

A police procedural set in Cambridgeshire England, with DI Manon Bradshaw. The character still grates on me because she is so unhappy in her own life. She alternately wants to be free of her relationships and family and desperately wants them to never go away. I found myself frequently thinking "stop waffling and commit" because of how much time the text spends inside her head.

However, I love her as a police detective, and I loved this particular crime-solving tale. Lukas and Matis are undocumented Lithuanian immigrants to England, living in squalor in effective slavery. The townsfolk hate them because they think the Lithuanians are taking their jobs and women. The neighbor particularly hates Lukas because he has been sleeping with his wife, and another hates Matis because he's spent time with his impressionable daughter. The Lithuanian bosses use them ruthlessly and are apt to disappear them if trouble arises. One fellow resident of the house gets sick. Rather than get medical care for him, they let him die and disappear his body.

All of these people are viable suspects when Lukas body is found hanging from a tree with a note reading "Mirusieji negali kalbėti" attached.

What I loved most about this is that the crime & investigation doesn't involve a bunch of improbable coincidences, and that the investigation is basic police legwork: interviews, reviewing surveillance video, reviewing logs of phone calls & license plate readers, etc. It's a mark of a good writer that Susie Steiner was able to craft a compelling story with twists & turns and do it without the improbable crutches so prevalent in the genre. It's a shame she died, as this book was the best of the series and I would have eagerly snapped up new entries.… (mere)

It took me a while to get into this book, but I’m glad I persevered. It started off a lot slower than I expected, and I didn’t warm up to the characters for quite a while. In the end, though, I quite liked Davy and I came around to Manon’s quirks and eccentricities too.

As I got into the book, I compared it quite a bit to watching one of my favourite police procedural TV shows. It was like getting into Bones or Rizzoli & Isles (the show, not the books), and I found myself eager to get back to the lives of these interesting law enforcement officers. I cared about them way more than I cared about Edith, Miriam, Ian and the rest of their lot.

I was disappointed in the last 30 pages or so, though. Once the “big reveal” occurred, the rest was just much too pat, including the explanation of what happened to Edith. It all felt like puzzle pieces falling into place, but there was no suspense or harrowing revelation here. After investing so much energy into these people, the ending was a disappointment. Still, I really enjoyed this novel overall and I’m glad I stuck with it.… (mere)