Each chapter is titled with the name of one of the characters. Missing, Presumed is written in present tense, giving it a kind of subconscious immediacy. Like most fictional detectives, she’s troubled, but in her case, she troubled by her pregnancy, the safety of her children, the pathetic men she dates, the idiocy of politicians, lack of sleep, and the state of her housecleaning. She’s not athletic and is unlikely to chase or tackle a suspect. Manon is neither like the typical male detective nor even many female detectives. By its end you know who this woman is, you are on her side, and you want to see what she’ll do next. Those first eight pages are a kind of tour of the character’s thoughts-smart, witty, insightful, honest, self-deprecating. The novel starts not with the crime (we don’t get to the missing person until page 14!) but with Manon at home on a snowy evening recalling a just concluded disastrous date. When I read Missing, Presumed, I found an original voice. While I never met Steiner, her writing had a profound effect on me. She lost her eyesight to a hereditary disease, retinitis pigmentosa, and was registered as fully blind just six months after publication of Missing, Presumed, which she described as “a lifelong dream come true.” Then, in 2019, while writing her third Manon novel, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, grade 4 glioblastoma, which eventually took her life. The first of the mysteries, Missing, Presumed, sold in a publishing auction, became in international bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year Award.īut she also suffered several serious health issues. Steiner wrote a debut literary novel and then three mysteries in the Manon trilogy.

Susie Steiner died on July 2 at age 51, leaving behind her husband and two young sons. Now, with the recent news of her passing, I feel all the more that I wish I’d had the chance to meet her. In the end, though, knowing of her grave illness at the time, I decided the choice was inappropriate and named someone else. From her social media and interviews, she came across as smart, brutally honest, and unlikely to suffer fools. In my mind, I imagined it would be an opportunity to be in the presence, even for a short time, of the author who created detective Manon Bradshaw. I wanted to say Susie Steiner in a pub somewhere in Cambridge, England, where Steiner’s novels are set. Earlier this year, when my second novel was published, an interviewer asked me which writer, alive or dead, I’d like to meet and under what circumstances.

Missing presumed susie steiner review