Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

4 stars

A mother’s fight for her unjustly accused son.

How often are we selective in what we take as proof of reality? We choose. We are all constructing a prosecution case in one way or another. All depending on our circumstances and where we are in life. DI Manon Bradshaw moves her family out of London to Huntingdon in the countryside to protect her adopted son, Fly Dent, because people consistently mistake black kids for being older than they are - they don’t afford a black boy the same presumption of innocence as they do white boys. She wants a better life for him and wants to take him away from all that institutional racist prejudice.

When Jon-Oliver Ross, a wealth manager at Dunlop and Finch - a private Bank, and Manon’s ex brother-in law, dies in the street across from Hinchingbrook Park on his way to see his ex-wife and son, the police arrest Fly for his murder based on video footage of a black boy in the vicinity, wearing a hoodie and not being at school as he should be.

Manon enlists the aid of Mark Talbot, a defence lawyer, who undertakes legal aid work. He is diligent and clever, and working together they discover that having wealth allows some people to get away with anything, even murder. It seems like money can buy anything from beautiful girls with perfect bodies to silence and cover-ups.

This book brought into focus that the big wide world is multi-faceted and we are all just exposed to the small reality of the world that surrounds us. But there are as many different realities as there are people, some not as pleasant as others, some far harsher than we thought possible.

Saphira

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

From the publisher: In this brilliant crime novel from the author of Missing, Presumed, a detective investigates her most personal case yet: a high-profile murder in which her own family falls under suspicion.

Persons Unknown is the second book in Susie Steiner’s police procedural mystery series. The lead character is a detective, pregnant through artificial insemination, who has recently moved to provide a better life for her adopted black son Fly. Then the father of her sister’s toddler is murdered, and Fly becomes the main suspect when he is seen on camera walking home from school near where the man was killed. The evidence is flimsy and circumstantial, but Manon’s colleagues seem to be working against her as she tries to prove Fly’s innocence.

Steiner is a good writer, and I wanted to see where the case was going and how Manon was going to cope with pregnancy while striving to clear her son’s name. Manon is messy and imperfect, and while I don’t always like her I appreciate that she seems like a real person.

The plot was inspired by a real case. While I fully believe young black man are falsely accused and even convicted on weak evidence, I did have a hard time fully buying that the adopted 12-year-old-son of a white police officer would be railroaded in quite the way that Fly is in this book. Still, like the first book (Missing, Presumed), Persons Unknown is a definite recommend from me for lovers of British police procedurals.

I read an advance reader copy of Persons Unknown. It will be released in early July and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library as a print book and an ebook.

This is such a love story. I can see jaws dropping. Don't get me wrong, it is also a straight-forward police procedural. But still, such a love story. The all-encompassing love of family, in Manon's case her adopted son Fly, her unborn child, her sister, and her ridiculously adorable nephew. There is also the love of one's job and one's co-workers, corrosive self-love, the unexpected romantic love. But where there is love there is usually heartbreaking betrayal. Co-workers just doing their jobs, adopted sons looking for their blood fathers, mothers ripping a child from all they know, and that same mother wondering why she wanted a child so badly. And the worst betrayal of all... letting someone else bear your sin.

A five months pregnant Manon and Fly have moved to Cambridgshire, Manon's old nick. Manon to cold cases, Fly to an all white school. The only plus for Fly is that aunt and cousin have come too. Manon is wanting to keep Fly away from the negatives of being a black kid in London. Instead he is introduced to the joy of being the only black kid around. The only black kid who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He soon finds himself put under arrest for murder. Arrested by his new mother's closest friends. Manon, of course is exiled from anything to do with the case. But by good friends and her force of will she is soon being supplied with information.

A straight ahead murder investigation. Well plotted. fast moving and exciting.

A few quibbles. I can't say I loved any of the characters. Which is to the good, I guess, because it means Steiner did a great job in making them real. I think if Solly had been my kid, he would have been sitting on the curb with a for sale sign, even though he is only a toddler. Davy did seem to finally grow a pair. While Manon was so irritating at times. Most of the time.

Also the London parts and some of those characters just seemed to show up, without any-as they say in court-foundation. It took a long time for some of the characters to show any affiliation with the rest of the book.

This is a series that should have legs. Very strong legs.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Persons Unknown is book #2 of the DS Manon (pronounced Ma-No with the emphasis on the second syllable) Bradshaw series. Though I liked the first book, Missing Presumed, a bit better, this too was a very enjoyable read.

My main complaint is the slow start. I was expecting a full on police procedural whereas what I got was a tale where the emphasis is on the characters’ struggles. This is not bad, just unexpected. Furthermore, early on, I found myself often irritated with Manon, and especially her work colleague DS Davy Walker. I also noted my interest flagging when I came upon chapters devoted to Birdie and Saskia. I got confused over similar names of several minor characters—Colin, Conley, Conor. Corporate names also led to frequent use of the Search button. These latter issues were flow-busters for me.

By midpoint, however, things picked up considerably, and I found myself engrossed. A number of important themes emerged. At the top are the tragedy of racial profiling and the ugly privilege of the rich white man. Breakdown of family relationships and just what defines a family are also addressed, as is the erosion of human spirit. The police were not seen in the best light in this book. Sloppy police work, easy jumps to false conclusions, and again, racial profiling led the way here.

The highlight for me came in the final chapters when several characters, most prominently Manon and Davy, bare their souls and philosophical insights. I thought this was extremely well done. I also found the overall ending to be realistic, not Hollywoodish as is so often done. As I read this book, my star rating rose progressively from 3 at best to a solid 4. If I could, I would rate the last chapters a stellar 5 stars.

I have Susie Steiner on my author watchlist. I see a ton of potential in her writing and will read her next book with blurb unread, as I do with my stable of go-to/read-all-they-write authors. With the way things ended in Persons Unknown, it is not clear to me that the DS Manon Bradshaw series will continue as it is at a natural stop point. I hope however that we do see Manon again. I want to see where her life and her work go from here.

I wish to thank Net Galley, Random House Books, and Ms. Susie Steiner for an ARC of this novel. The opinions in my review are unbiased and are mine alone.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review her latest book - which I loved!

I was a huge fan of Missing, Presumed and was excited that it was the beginning of a series centering around Manon - a police investigator. This book begins with Manon moving back to Cambridgeshire from London, with her adopted son Fly, her sister Ellie and her son. Fly is not happy with their move - he's the only black student in school, he misses his friends and Manon is pregnant. Meanwhile, Manon has to take a job in cold cases instead of being a lead investigator as she was previously. She's now ambivalent about the upcoming baby too. Then Ellie's ex-husband is found murdered and Fly becomes a suspect.

The story is told in different voices which leads to lots of background but still lots of questions. How well do we know our families? I loved getting reacquainted with Davy, now lead investigator on Fly's case. Susie Steiner is a wonderful author and this is a highly-recommended series! I can't wait for the next one...

Manon is great at balancing being a mom & a detective. I love everything Steiner so far and it was a great read.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this novel.

Well looks like I found a new author to stalk this year. First of all thank you for allowing me to read this early, I am honored. Excuse me tho while I "GOOGLE" the author and purchase her other books.

Last year, I read and reviewed Steiner’s Missing, Presumed, her previous detective story featuring Manon Bradshaw (four stars). In that review I expressed my fondness for novels by Tana French and Kate Atkinson, and noted “I have to say that Steiner’s protagonist, Manon Bradshaw, reminded me a bit of George’s Barbara Havers of the Lynley series. Like Barbara, she is a no-longer young woman who has an interesting and successful career – but she is dissatisfied with her situation, and she REALLY wants to be in a relationship. She is 39, and trying to get her life in order, “ Well, here we are again!

As Persons Unknown opens, Detective Manon Bradshaw has sort of given up on that whole finding a relationship thing, and has transferred back to Cambridgeshire where she is living with her sister Ellie, Ellie’s toddler son Solly, and Fly Dent, the twelve-year-old boy Manon has adopted. She hopes that moving away from London will provide Fly with a fresh start, where he won’t be routinely stopped and frisked by police who see only his skin color. Fly is a “…tall black youth with his hood up? He might as well wear a sign saying “Arrest me now,”” Oh, and she is five months pregnant (spoiler alert) via donor and has abandoned the search for a life partner!

What she really wants is the elusive dream of work-life balance, so she transfers to the routine, stable (and boring?) cold case group, and is determined to be a good mom to Fly and the new baby. Manon feared that the move would beneficial for Fly and she tells herself this is just what they all need.

A stabbing victim is found, and he turns out to be someone well known to Manon’s sister Ellie: he is Solly’s birth father who is a banker from London, who just happens to be worth millions. Manon finds herself trying to work on the case, although she is prohibited from doing so officially when it begins to move ever closer to her home and family.

The writing is terrific. As was the case with Missing, Presumed, I love some of the minor characters, and their wry humor. This trait is revealed in Birdie, who becomes important to the investigation: “When you’re young you think happiness might be some kind of perpetual state of orgasm, but later, once the joints go, you realize it can be simulated with some cheese and a cracker.”

But I especially love Manon. As she looks at her middle-aged self, she realizes she “…is becoming invisible, pushing her trolley up and down the aisles of Waitrose toward oblivion, picking up some grapefruit-scented all-purpose spray on her way there.”

And especially this: “What would she think of herself, what would the world think, if she were to hurl her haggard self at Mark Talbot…or pinch the bottom of a younger man next to the photocopier in the office; to deny, as men do, the aging of her flesh? Why can’t she, as men do, say” Yes, I am potbellied, wrinkly-bottomed, shortsighted, but I will make a play for that twenty-eight-year-old nevertheless? Why should she hide her desires inside the acceptable consumption of table lamps and Boden cardigans and heritage tomatoes as if this is compensation, when what she wants is callous and vivid?”

Wow! THIS is a character we know, with real emotions and life situations. Steiner does a great job with the people and the plot, although it did fall apart a tiny bit for me at the end. It was five stars right up until the last part, although when thinking how it might have otherwise ended that would have been preferable, I can’t come up with anything. But, four stars and thanks to Random House and NetGalley!

I was a huge fan of Missing, Presumed, so was thrilled to see the second in the series was being published. Steiner did a fabulous job in the first book of painting both her characters and the scenes with explicit brush strokes. And she does it here again. “It is almost impossible to stay fixed in not knowing. Instead, she ricochets.” Like before, I was highlighting descriptions left and right. And she doesn't just provide these wonderful details with Manon. Davy, as well. “There's been no one since Chloe...not so much that she put him off all relationships, more that he didn't get back on the horse, and now he's not even in the vicinity of a stable.”
In this book, Manon has moved out of London with her sister, Ellie, and their kids, including Fly, Manon’s adopted 12 year old. He is the only black in is new school and is not fitting in. Before you know it, Fly has been accused of the murder of Jon-Oliver, the father of Ellie’s three year old son. You, the reader, are privy to Jon-Oliver’s background as well as the story from the viewpoint of someone who knows more of what has happened. I'm always entranced by stories where we know more of the story than the detectives. How will it all come together?
This isn't a fast paced story. No swoops or roller coaster rides. But it's a nice steady pace. And as with some of my other favorite mysteries (Louise Penny, Archer Mayor, William Kent Krueger) you're drawn in as much by how you get to know and appreciate the main characters. I can only hope like with my other favorite authors, there are many more Manon Bradshaw mysteries ahead of us.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

This second DS Manon novel had me thinking back to the first installment of this series: Missing, Presumed. Reading that first book I found myself "sucked in." This second book was the same. I again found myself turning to this book with all my spare moments (and I read several books at once so there is always competition for my time). They mystery of what really happened is tied to Manon is two ways, through her job but more importantly through her family. The intertwining makes this book both character and story line driven, a solid one-two. It also gives what could be a cold hard mystery a softer touch. Susie Steiner did not let us down with this sequel!

I'm not an avid crime reader so I really love it when a book comes along that has more to offer than the standard police procedural stuff and this is one of them. Susie Steiner has created a really interesting main character in Manon and a satisfying array of secondary characters that I'm looking forward to reading more about in subsequent books.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader copy. I had high hopes for this 2nd in a series mystery/police novel. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to them. While I really enjoyed the 1st Manon Bradshaw story, I had a hard time getting through this one. I just didn't feel like the story gelled in a lot of ways and there were a few aspects of Manon's police actions while on leave I found to strain credulity. And lastly, the ending was disappointing. While I realize there will be a next book to continue the stories of the characters, and there wasn't a real cliff hanger here, I just didn't feel like the author went quite far enough in wrapping things up. I'm not sure if I will read the next one or not.

Manon Bradshaw is back.

As dusk falls a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls; cradled by a stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life.

DI Manon Bradshaw can’t help taking an interest – these days she only handles cold cases, but the man died just yards from the police station where she works.

She’s horrified to discover that both victim and prime suspect are more closely linked to her than she could have imagined. And as the Cambridgeshire police force closes ranks against her, she is forced to contemplate the unthinkable.

How well does she know her loved ones, and are they capable of murder?'

It has been a while since I read the first in the DS Manon series. I remembered Missing Presumed as a great read, but had forgotten Manon to a large extent. It didn't take many chapters for her witty character to come flooding back to me. Persons Unknown is a fantastic follow up to Missing Presumed. Having gone back to her old job with her old force and a whole set of different personal circumstances, Manon's personal life is focused on more intently here than previously.

A gripping thriller. A real page-turner. Steiner has great strength in character development and the story unfolds by way of different narratives. Despite it's core plot, I found myself smiling, sometimes even laughing out loud at the hilarious one-liners planted throughout, such as one character's opinion of perhaps moving to Spain, "It'll just feel disappointing and also irritating because you won't know the Spanish for pile cream."

Missing Presumed was one of the bestselling books of 2016, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and was named a New York Times 'Must-read thriller of the Summer.' I believe Persons Unknown will follow in the footsteps of it's older sibling and top the charts this summer.

What a book! Really enjoyed! Highly recommend. Perfect book club pick!

I had been anxiously awaiting the 2nd Detective Manon Bradshaw novel and was so excited to receive an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest I didn’t remember much about the first book Manon Bradshaw book (Missing, Presumed), but I knew that I was keen to read its follow up. As I began reading Persons Unknown I was drawn in right away and remembered why I had liked the first book: Susie Steiner’s writing is fluid, the language is colloquial, and the characters are realistic and likeable.

Quick plot synopsis: a man is found stabbed to death in the woods. He just happens to be the father of Manon’s sister’s son. Manon is working cold cases and isn’t assigned to this case, but is compelled to investigate when her family becomes increasingly implicated.

I was annoyed with a few aspects of the book. Firstly, the crime itself - rich City asshole gets killed, was probably up to no good and whose colleagues are most likely involved - seemed too familiar. Secondly, the relationship with Mark that grew out of nowhere. Would a relationship really have blossomed under these circumstances? Maybe, but I am generally opposed to the introduction of romance in a thriller, unless it’s critical to the plot (I’m a cold hearted woman obviously ) And finally, I was stunned by the sudden exit of Angel and the highly eventful meeting of Birdie and Manon. It seemed rather quick and alarming compared to the steady plotting of the rest of the narrative, but I suppose the pace was ramping up by that point.

And then, just when I (and you, probably) thought I was not at all impressed with the book…

I loved the character of Birdie, and the story of her and Angel. I had no idea why they were introduced at first, but didn’t mind at all, and was content to let their characters and relationship build.

I liked the end, because it was back to the focusing on the characters again, instead of the plot merely accompanying them as they whizzed about.

I would recommend Persons Unknown because I like Susie Steiner’s prose and characters, and because I realize that I might be pickier than most with my annoyances. The crime itself isn’t unique but it was a different spin and I enjoyed the evolution of the character of Manon.

This seamless blend of personal and professional is Steiner’s great strength, the way in which she makes us question all of our easy assumptions about family, motherhood and love. Each character seems well-rounded, with real depth, especially Manon, who feels like a frazzled yet slightly more energetic version of ourselves. The target audience for this is the reader who enjoyed the more realistic portrayal of women detectives such as Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series (although I like this one more) or the feisty Sarah Lancashire character in Happy Valley.

My recommendation for anyone who thinks this book looks interesting is to read "Missing, Presumed" first. It will really set you up for this one and you'll enjoy this book all the more for having been introduced to all of the characters in the first book. Manon is a fascinating character, with wild mood swings, going from hating everything and everybody and thinking her life is just rubbish, to being excessively happy and content with her situation, as situations change. Watching her character progress from the first book and through this one is gratifying, and you get a strikingly good mystery on top of well developed characters.

Manon Bradshaw has moved her adopted son, Fly, her sister Ellie and nephew Solomon back to Cambridgeshire to try and keep Fly away from bad influences in London. Then Solomon's dad is found murdered and Fly is implicated - has Manon made the right decision or has she brought Fly into the heart of danger?

I did enjoy the first Manon Bradshaw novel so I was interested to see how the story followed on. This second novel jumps straight in without really going back over old ground which, even as a previous reader, I found rather disorientating and a little bit confusing.

Manon herself is an interesting character but the author does seem to spend a lot of time making her, at 5 months pregnant, not able to do very much. I actually found this quite irritating and not at all true to life and it did really spoil the book for me as I cannot see why a woman who is 5 months pregnant with her first child can't walk properly!

I have always very much liked the characters of Fly and Davey and they don't disappoint again. The introduction of Mark is also positive as he is an interesting character who I would like to know more about.

The crime itself is not really a big part of the book to be honest and, even if it was, I didn't really like the people involved. I really dislike corporate "fat cats" "getting away with murder" and I think this was done quite poorly in this story.

All in all, this follow up didn't grab me as much as the first novel and I had started to get quite irritated with the character of Manon. I am not sure how the author can take it from here, but I won't be rushing to read the next one if there is one. Rather a disappointing read.