I’ve read and reviewed two earlier books by Susie Steiner featuring Detective Manon Bradshaw (Missing, Presumed in 2016 and Persons Unknown in 2017) and really liked both of them (****), so I was happy to get a copy of Remain Silent, Ms. Steiner’s latest featuring Detective Bradshaw. In my earlier reviews, 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 Elizabeth George’s Barbara Havers of the Lynley series. Like Barbara, when we met her (In Missing, Presumed) she was a no-longer young woman with an interesting and successful career – but she was dissatisfied with her situation, and she REALLY wanted to be in a relationship. She was nearing forty, and trying to get her life in order… “
In Persons Unknown, Manon had sort of given up on that whole finding-a-relationship thing, and transferred back to Cambridgeshire to work and live with her sister Ellie, Ellie’s toddler son Solly, and Fly Dent, the twelve-year-old boy Manon adopted. As Remain Silent begins, Manon has recently married and is living with her husband Mark, a preschooler son named Teddy, and teenager Fly. She is working part-time for the Cambridgeshire police force, looking at cold cases. She’s somewhat bored with the work and trying hard to adjust to what she thought was going to be nonstop domestic bliss, but has turned into lots of bickering about things like whose turn it is to clean the kitchen. She has resorted to couples counseling, but that has recently devolved into her going alone because Mark thinks the sessions would just be her complaining.
One day, when she is on a walk with her four-year-old son in their quiet suburban neighborhood, she is shocked to come across the body of a Lithuanian immigrant hanging from a tree. There is a mysterious note attached, and before she knows it, she is back on the job full-force, trying to solve the mysterious death…was it suicide? Or murder?
Like Steiner’s other books featuring Manon Bradshaw, there is plenty of wry humor and quirky self-revelatory commentary throughout…which is sorely needed, because the story of the migrants’ lives, including the details of human trafficking, is brutal. TBH, I had a hard time with it, mostly because I was reading to escape from the harsh realities of today’s world situation, and the plight of the Latvians was so well done, with the characterization written so well, it was somewhat painful for me. Mixed in with the stories of the economic migrants is the strong anti-immigrant stance of many in the U.K., which is very similar to what we are seeing more and more in the U.S., (having a racist xenophobe in the White House has tended to make it acceptable for those with an inclination to be racist to just do it overtly, rather than seeing the thinly veiled bigotry more common in recent years, prior to 2016).
Overall, I loved the way we get to know Manon more and more with each book in the series. This one works fine as a standalone, although fans of the earlier novels will perhaps appreciate it a bit more as we see Manon’s character continue to evolve. I truly hope the author’s health improves, and that both she and Detective Bradshaw are around for many more years. Four stars (it would be five if I were less sensitive to the plight of the migrants…but that’s me, no lack on the part of Ms. Steiner). Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.