Missing Person: Alice (The Finder Mysteries)
by Simon Mason
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Pub Date 11 Sep 2024 | Archive Date 13 Sep 2024
Quercus Books | riverrun
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Description
'Mason has been mainlining Simenon for a while, and it shows' Mick Herron
'The very definition of unputdownable' David Peace
'It's like the provincial British version of Maigret' Clare Chambers
The people I work with call me 'Finder'. I'm a specialist, a finder of missing people.
July 2015, Sevenoaks. 12-year-old schoolgirl Alice Johnson went missing while doing her paper round, her bag found discarded on the pavement. At 08.00, she was spotted standing in heavy rain at the side of the busy by-pass. At 11.00, she was seen talking to the driver of a black car in Tonbridge. After that, nothing. Alice was never found.
Nine years later the body of another schoolgirl, Joleen Price, is pulled from a nearby lake and a local man named Vince Burns detained. Convinced that Burns is guilty in both cases, SIO Dave Armstrong calls in the Finder to investigate the earlier disappearance.
Interviewing those who thought they knew her, the Finder gradually reveals a hidden Alice, a girl of surprising contradictions. Seeking answers from her divorced parents - an over-protective mother, a negligent father - the Finder is forced to consider violently opposing narratives. Was the timid 12-year-old a victim of the predator Burns, as he himself hints? Or was she carrying out a plan of her own?
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781529425949 |
PRICE | £12.00 (GBP) |
PAGES | 240 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
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This is an intriguing story told in the first person from the point of view of a missing person investigator called the Finder. It’s a bit like a modern version of the Rockford Files, a beloved tv programme from my childhood, in the way the author talks directly to the reader.
The Finder is tasked with searching for Alice Johnson, a 12 year old newspaper delivery girl who has disappeared 9 years earlier.
Her warring and unpleasant parents have had no closure but when a killer, in prison for a murder of another girl, claims to know about where she is, the Finder is asked to reopen the investigation and talks to witnesses and her family.
I enjoyed the way the book was narrated, there was a little personal information about the Finder although most of it read like a report into the investigation and how it was concluded. It was quite factual but as a literary technique it worked well. The Finder, himself, is reading a Henry James novel about an unhappy girl who has to choose which parent should look after her and this has a baring on the story.
“Missing Person: Alice” is the first in a new series by this excellent author who has written some compelling thrillers featuring the unusual detective Ryan Wilkins which I veritably devoured over the last few years.
I’m now looking forward to starting the 2nd book in the Finder series which is being published at the same time.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.
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My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
A quality book clever intelligent storytelling well written with superb characters throughout particularly our cool calm lead. Engaging and interesting from first to last page, with surprises along the way, especially the ultimate twist which I am pleased to say I worked out.
Completely recommended.
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