BOOK REVIEW: Remain Silent (DI Manon Bradshaw, #3) by Susie Steiner

Remain Silent by Susie Steiner is the third book in the DI Manon Bradshaw series. It is what appears on the surface to be a pretty traditional British police procedural series except with the notable difference that the author and protagonist are both female. The first two books in the series, Missing, Presumed and Persons Unknown were interesting, quirky crime fiction novels I quite enjoyed a few years ago, so when I saw the third one had been released in 2020 I decided to give it a go. It turns out that I have somewhat recently read the first three books in multiple crime fiction series: Cork O’Connor by William Kent Krueger, Ruth Galloway by Elly Griffiths, Roy Grace by Peter James, Ben Cooper & Deborah Fry by Stephen Cooper and Joe Pickett by C.J. Box. I would probably say my favorites in this bunch are the last 3 (I intend to read every book in each of these series, and happily each of these series are  at least 12 books long). My point of showing this list in this review is to put the DI Manon Bradshaw series in the context of others I have recently read and to alert readers of this review to some other (longer) series they may want to check out, if you like the Manon Bradshaw books as much as I do, perhaps you’ll like these others as well.

One reason I connected with Manon is her unique view of the world and attitude towards the police and police work itself. To put it mildly, she’s quite skeptical of the ability of the police to “make things right” and her personality doesn’t mesh well with working in a rigidly hierarchical, faux-militaristic, staunchly bureaucratic organization like the Metropolitan Police. What’s great is that Steiner makes Manon’s thoughts very clear on this and many other subjects.

In Remain Silent, Manon’s (and very likely the author’s) views on multiple aspects of contemporary life in modern Britain are made very clear. The focus of the story is on the death of a naïve, saintly teenager from Lithuania who is trafficked into England and exploited by a gang of dehumanizing, heartless thugs to do awful work (catching live chickens for slaughter with unprotected bare hands for 10-12 hours a day) that no homegrown Brits would do, especially at the slave-labor wages provided. Steiner is clearly making a point about immigration and xenophobia (and of course, Brexit, although that word never appears in the text). The depiction of how a group of able-bodied men are forced into a situation which is basically modern-day slavery, primarily caused by a language barrier and compounded by culturally inculcated fear/hatred of official authority and the law, occurs in the full view of polite society, which in most cases is literally snarling hostilely at the foreigners’ exploitation, is blood-curdling.

One of the best features of Persons Unknown was watching as Manon’s relationship with Fly, her adopted teenaged son (who is Black), develops, especially in the context of the plot, where Fly’s racial identity (and Manon’s) play extremely important factors. Sadly, Fly is almost a cipher in Remain Silent and barely appears in the text. Instead, Manon's second child, a toddler named Teddy, gets far more “ink” in this book. Happily, Mark, one of the best things to happen to Manon in Book 2, along with her co-worker Davy, continue to have substantial roles in Book 3. Davy and Manon’s professional relationship and banter while working together is one of the highlights of the series as a whole.

In addition to making her thoughts known about “the immigration question,” the author also deploys Manon’s status as a middle-aged, unmarried, white woman in a committed relationship raising two kids to make several points about marriage and middle-age and modern life. At some points, Manon’s thoughts and comments about her best friend’s philandering husband (and her success at terminating his infidelity and convincing him to return to his wife) as well as her running commentary about the nature of commitment, especially in the context of medical uncertainty overwhelm the police-procedural, crime fiction narrative that we the reader are ostensibly reading this book for. And this was absolutely fine with me, elevating it above the first two entries in the series. Remain Silent is more than a whodunnit, it’s also a “whyshouldwecare” and I liked that about it. As I’ve said multiple times, ultimately most genre books are formulaic, so to build more than a casual connection with readers requires more than just the elements that are found in all books of this type, and with the attention brought to a serious, pressing issue as well as particular insight brought to modern life, Remain Silent stands out among the pack.

Title: Remain Silent.
Author: Susie Steiner.
Format: Kindle. 
Pages: 320 pages.
Publisher: Random House.
Date Published: June 5, 2020.
Date Read: February 8, 2021.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★☆  (4.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A-.