There is little more satisfying than settling into the first couple of chapters of a new crime series and thinking, 'Yes, this is the real deal. I'm going to enjoy this.'
So it was with Susie Steiner's Missing, Presumed, the first in a series featuring Huntingdon detective Manon Bradshaw. A few pages in, I'd already taken to Manon, a lonely, single Detective Sergeant, heading towards 40 with a sense that an opportunity for a personal life was passing her by in a blur of unsatisfactory internet dates.
The one constant in her life is the job - she even goes to sleep listening to a police radio for background noise. In the Cambridge constabulary she is highly regarded as smart and intuitive, a good cop and a good colleague. But even in her professional life, Manon is beginning to feel unfulfilled without a big case to sink her teeth into. That is until Edith Hind, a Cambridge University post-graduate student from a well-connected family - her father is physician to the Royal Family - goes missing. This is the sort of case Manon has been waiting for.
While Huntingdon might not seem the obvious setting for a crime series, the attractions become quickly apparent. Both Oxbridge and the mysterious Fenlands have been good sources of intrigue in the past (see the books of Jim Kelly and Colin Dexter). And the otherwise sleepy market town is close enough to London for the big bad City to touch its peaceful, rural innocence.
And so it is here with all three playing key role in a story arc that touches the politics of privilege, the desperation of poverty and the volatility of family life and sexual relationships. However good a storyline and however clever a plot though, it is always the characters and the interaction between them that carries a good crime novel. And so it is here.
Manon is a treat. She is authentic, nuanced, complex and engaging; she is strong in the job, confused and vulnerable away from it. You will want to meet her again. The development of Edith Hind's character is also skilfully handled. Despite the fact she is Missing, Presumed, Steiner paints a textured pictured of her life that opens the mystery of her disappearance.
There are multi-dimensional characters in the supporting cast also, and in particular Davy Walker, Manon's DC.
What's not to like? Engaging characters, whip-smart writing and a compelling narrative that holds its secret beautifully. I loved it - as you may have guessed - and I'm already on to the follow up Persons Unknown.