Susie Steiner’s novel has been described as a police procedural, and it is that. Set in the UK, the main protagonist is Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw, who works in Cambridgeshire. She is working on a case of a missing twenty-something woman Edith Hind who has disappeared. Her parents are both doctors, and are well connected and can make trouble for the local police if they don’t find their daughter. But she may have come to harm, so the police look for clues everywhere, and uncover a great deal about Edith’s life. Readers learn a lot about Manon’s life too: she is 39 years old, and can’t find a boyfriend. Instead she goes on a lot of dates, sleeps with the men, and never sees them again. This is far from hedonism: she is unhappy and is scared about her approaching forties. Her level of existential discomfort is reminiscent of Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander, who is driven to devote his life to solving crime even though the work destroys his personal life.

What sets this apart from standard procedurals, however, is the quality of the writing. The narrative focus switches between the major female characters, and although each has unlikeable characteristics, we see how they try to make sense of their lives and the tensions threatening to pull them apart. It’s a remarkably perceptive and thoughtful novel that raises issues of gender, class and race. It provides a better picture of life in Britain than most supposedly “literary” novels. And the prose writing is so spare it is poetic — not in a high minded, alienating way, but rather it draws you in with its slightly unusual turns of phrase and its startling economies. The unabridged audiobook is performed by Juanita McMahon, who brings the book to life with a wonderful reading.

© 2016 Christian Perring

Christian Perring listens to a lot of audiobooks, and is rarely seen outside without wearing earbuds.