Friday Finds #August 12th

Friday Finds is a meme currently hosted by Jenn @ Books and a Beat.  This is an opportunity to share the books that you have recently found and added to your TBR collection.

I added three books to my TBR pile this week.

SOS: Summer of St. George by Briana Gaitan- I read this one as soon as I got it so you can read my review here.

 When we were 16, we made a pact.
When we were 17, we decided to follow through.
When we were 18, we decided to spend our final summer together.
Because at the end of the summer, we would show them.
Our deaths would show the world- they can’t treat us this way any longer.
This is our SOS, our Summer of St. George.
Murphy and her cousin Poppy have been BFFs forever. They share everything- including a birthday.
When they make a pact to commit suicide after high school, they decide to have one last summer of fun with NO consequences and nothing holding them back.
As the Summer of St. George begins, things don’t go as planned. Murphy doesn’t expect to fall in love and she doesn’t expect to find a boy that makes her want to live. His name is Liam, and after spending two years in the Air Force living in Japan, he’s trying to integrate back into American society. As a self-proclaimed “Jack-of-all-trades” he knows things about Murphy that she isn’t quite ready to admit to herself. And he is determined to haunt her, peel back layer after layer of lies until she can’t run from the truth anymore.
This is our SOS, this is our Summer of St. George.

 

Cover Me in Darkness by Eileen Rendahl

Amanda Sinclair has to fight harder than most for everything she has after fleeing the cult that left her brother dead at her mother’s hand. Amanda works a quiet job in quality control for a small cosmetics company, trying to leave her past behind her—until she learns that her mother has committed suicide in the mental ward where she’s been locked away for the past ten years.

At first, Amanda believes that her mother killed herself, but when she looks through the personal belongings left behind, it seems her death may be related to the upcoming parole hearing for cult leader Patrick Collier. Teaming up with her mother’s psychologist, Amanda starts to peel away the layers of secrets that she’s built between herself and her own past, and what she finds is a truth that’s almost too big to believe.

 

Watching Edie by Camilla Way

 Beautiful, creative, a little wild… Edie was the kind of girl who immediately caused a stir when she walked into your life. And she had dreams back then—but it didn’t take long for her to learn that things don’t always turn out the way you want them to.

Now, at thirty-three, Edie is working as a waitress, pregnant and alone. And when she becomes overwhelmed by the needs of her new baby and sinks into a bleak despair, she thinks that there’s no one to turn to…

But someone’s been watching Edie, waiting for the chance to prove once again what a perfect friend she can be. It’s no coincidence that Heather shows up on Edie’s doorstep, just when Edie needs her the most. So much has passed between them—so much envy, longing, and betrayal. And Edie’s about to learn a new lesson: those who have hurt us deeply—or who we have hurt—never let us go, not entirely…

So those are my new books. How about you?Did you add any books to your bookshelf this week?Have you read of my new finds?Let me know.

 

Happy Friday!

Book Review: Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner

Description (from goodreads)

At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep—and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family—has been reported missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows this case will be big—and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith’s loved ones: her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, and her patrician parents. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith’s tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family, but for Manon herself.

Review

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner is a story about a high profile missing person. The story revolves around the investigation of this missing woman. The lead investigator is DS Manon Bradshaw. While investigating the story, Manon is also in search for love. So we have these two stories run concurrently although the investigation is the main focus.

This book has multiple narrators. There is Manon who is the lead investigator. Interestingly, we also have another cop as a narrator, Davy who works closely with Manon. Other characters who are part of the investigation also feature as narrators such as the missing woman’s best friend and her mother.

The story is suspenseful, the clock is ticking so there is pressure on the police to solve the case soon. The more  time passes since Edith went missing, the more the pressure builds hence escalating the tension. The mystery is developed slowly through the chapters as secrets are revealed, list of suspects grows and the police gets new leads on the case.

This is an interesting book although it didn’t quite work for me. There is nothing wrong with the story but I didn’t like the pacing. There are so many details and a lot of focus on the characters and their lives outside the investigation and this slowed down the pace of the book. However, I think this was an issue for me because I went in expecting the usual fast paced thrillers with lots of surprises and twists. So if you decide to read this book then you should change your expectations and perhaps that will help you enjoy it more.

I recommend Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner for fans of police procedural books. As I have already mentioned, the book details the investigation. There are searches conducted, police strategies discussed, a lot of suspects interviewed and we get to view the investigation from two officers working the case. If you like books that are character driven then this one is for you. You will get to know the officers and suspects pretty well due to the detailed character development that delves into their personal lives especially when it comes to DS Manon. Finally, if you like a good mystery then you might also enjoy this one. The investigation is interesting with a couple of false leads and the tension that is builds by the minute hence cumulating in a wonderful suspenseful novel.

About the Author:

 SUSIE STEINER is a former Guardian journalist, where she worked as a commissioning editor for 11 years. Prior to that, she worked for The Times, the Telegraph and and the Evening Standard. She lives in London with her husband and two sons. Check out her website for more.

About the Book

• Title: Missing Presumed
• Author: Susan Steiner
• My Rating: 3.5 stars

• Hardcover, 400 pages
  Published February 25th 2016 by The Borough Press