What is it I like so much about DS Manon Bradshaw, Susie Steiner’s cranky detective?
In Persons Unknown, the followup to Missing, Presumed, she’s as impossible as ever and living in a small town with Fly, the teen she adopted in London. Bradshaw is working on cold cases rather than active investigations – to explain why would give away too much. But then a man is stabbed to death near the police station, and the case comes very close to home.
One of the things I admire about Steiner is that her books address social issues in a deft way that never strays from the plot. Persons Unknown tackles single motherhood and racial profiling by police in a thoughtful way that never seems anything but organic to the story.
If you like female sleuths and haven’t discovered DS Bradshaw yet, you’re missing out.