BOOKS Susie Steiner’s new novel in the DI Manon Bradshaw series
Susie Steiner’s third novel is an enthralling, multifaceted yarn.
When a London banker dies of a stab wound in a small English town, the local police boss decides that Fly, a 12-yearold black boy, is the killer. In PERSONS UNKNOWN, by Susie Steiner (Borough
Press, $35), Fly is arrested despite the furious objections of his adoptive mother, Detective Inspector Manon Bradshaw. Thus begins a multifaceted story that takes in families, the behaviour of bankers (not great), call girls, racial prejudice and dogged investigation by the pregnant Bradshaw. That’s a great deal to fit into one book, but Steiner weaves it all effortlessly into her enthralling narrative. It’s a remarkable achievement by a writer whose gift for concise characterisation is very useful, since she is dealing with such a large cast. Highly recommended.
THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS, by Michael Robotham (Hachette, $32.99), is a psychological thriller with a lot of psychology and a few thrills. The story concerns two pregnant women, each of whom narrates her own sections of the story: Agatha, single and poor, wants to be like Meghan, who has a successful husband and two children already. Both women have secrets, and Agatha’s is a beauty. In the slow start to the book, Robotham burrows into the brains of the two women to explain their characters and how they came into their present situations, and he does it well. The story finally picks up pace when Meghan’s new baby is abducted and the police take over the hunt. A good novel of its kind.
In PRESUMED GUILTY, by Mark McGinn (Merlot Publishing, $32.99), Christchurch
lawyer Sasha Stace reluctantly agrees to defend her former lover Ben, who has been accused of murdering his partner in Akaroa. It is to be her last court appearance before she becomes a judge, though she is also supposed to be investigating another lawyer who has been accused of misconduct. That lawyer happens to be the prosecutor in this case. Sasha’s team includes a private investigator for whom she has feelings and her daughter, who was adopted at birth. The plot twists and turns neatly but is perhaps too complex because at times it’s hard to remember who did what to whom and indeed who is who. It does, however, offer some interesting insights into legal practice.
THE FINAL HOUR, by Tom Wood (Sphere, $34.99), is unusual in that it is a well-written airport thriller. Professional assassins and shadowy, evil organisations are standard airport-thriller fare, but the prose here is on a much higher level, with some nice turns of phrase and a paucity of the clichés that blight so many books in this genre. The assassins here are “Tesseract” and “Raven” and they have got on the wrong side of the “Consensus”. They meet and Raven agrees to help Tesseract, which is magnanimous of her, because the last time their paths crossed, he poisoned and very nearly killed her. There’s plenty of action and it won’t strain your brain, so next time you’re going on a long flight, see if it’s in the airport bookstore.