'Missing, Presumed' — Susie Steiner

I've only learned of countless wonderful authors when I read their obituaries.

Susie Steiner's, which appeared July 8, 2022 in the New York Times, is yet another in that succession.

"Presumed, Missing," published in 2016, was her first novel and a roaring success, becoming a best seller in her native Britain and selling some 700,000 copies worldwide.

From the Times: "'Missing, Presumed' was the first of three novels centered on Manon Bradshaw, a police detective in Cambridge whose personal life was almost as much of a mess as the cases she was investigating, but who you couldn't help rooting for and falling in love with," Andrea Walker, who published the book in the United States for Random House, wrote in an email.

Steiner's run as a detective writer lasted only four years and three books.

Her characters are sharply etched and striking and the writing absorbing as well as being sarcastic, original, observant, and very funny.

Highly recommended.