Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Despite an interesting premise and a darkly humorous tone, I found this a difficult book to get into. Normally I really enjoy the multiple narrator device, but on this occasion I found it muddled, and one or two of the strands unnecessary. I didn’t warm to the present-tense narration, which frequently jumps into the past for a character’s internal memories, then back to the present, which felt unstructured. The story itself jerks about all over the place – as do many of the characters’ emotions or established behaviour – and there were a couple of leaps of logic or suspensions of disbelief necessary to further the plot. One particular revelation came very much out of the blue, while other threads just faded away.
The undercurrent of snarky humour and the character of Manon – her story arc and development was my favourite part – kept me turning the pages but by the end I was struggling to care about what had happened to Edith, particularly because she appeared to have been so unlikable.
2/5 for Manon and the tone. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the opportunity to read the ARC of Missing, Presumed.
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