Cover Image: Remain Silent

Remain Silent

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It has been my absolute JOY this week to read the third novel in the Manon Bradshaw series. And, no surprise, it was just as wonderful – if not more so!
“Remain Silent” will, without a doubt, be included in my favorites list for 2020. And Manon Bradshaw? Well, she may very well be my favourite character, EVER!

Manon Bradshaw, a Detective Inspector with the Cambridgeshire Police, is now forty-six years old. She shares a house with her adopted son, Fly, her common-law husband Mark Talbot, and her their four year-old son, Teddy.

Manon is content working on cold cases three days a week since she came off maternity leave.

Davy Walker, once Manon’s sergeant, now equals her in rank. Davy is engaged to be married – a status he is not sure he is completely comfortable with.

Manon and Davy have a wonderful rapport and mutual respect.

When Manon and Teddy discover an immigrant hanging from a tree in a local park, the apparent suicide leads Manon down a path that sheds light on the unethical treatment of Lithuanian migrant workers, men who came to the UK for a better life, but are instead treated abominably, with disgusting living conditions, debt bonding, and emotional and physical abuse of all kinds.

The author creates a personal story around these workers which makes their plight all the more impactful.

“Most nightmares end if you only give them time.
This too will pass was a good enough motto to live by.”

The police case involves migrant workers. Although the case was compelling, for me it was by far overshadowed by the wonderful characters in this novel. Manon is a brilliant policewoman trying to attain the always illusive home/work balance. She loves her children like a fierce ‘Mamma Bear’. Fly is a wonderful boy who at age sixteen is facing his GCSEs and is an excellent big brother for Teddy.

What I love about Steiner’s novels is that she creates the perfect balance between the case in hand and Manon’s personal life. The case this time highlights the abhorrent treatment of Lithuanian migrant workers in the United Kingdom. A very real problem that ‘Operation Pheasant‘ is trying to address.

On the personal side, Manon is struggling with parenting, middle age, police budget cuts and most importantly a cancer diagnosis for her partner Mark. She adores the people in her life and her humour filled relationship with her best friend Bri is a joy to read.

This novel is about normal people just trying to get by in a world that often feels adversarial. It is about parenting, and the love of family in all its permutations. A skillfully written novel that contains empathy, pathos, and humour. In short, I loved this book. I’m already yearning for another glimpse into Manon’s world.

I wish everyone could read this fantastic series. Highly, highly recommended!

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The spark has faded a bit for me with the third installment of the Manon Bradshaw series. It's been a while since I've read the first two, but I recall gobbling them up, chuckling at the witticisms, and feeling really immersed in Manon's world. This time, I had a hard time sinking in, and while I plowed through, it was lacking a certain something. I can't quite name it, but looking back I gave the other two novels five stars and this didn't feel quite up to that level. The grimness of the various plots didn't help much either (modern-day slave trade, cancer, cheating spouses, mid-life doldrums). Judging by the author's endnote this may well be the last Manon novel, in which case you should still read it and say your goodbyes. Here's hoping that Steiner had many more stories left in her.

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“Bigots have feelings too.”

Remain Silent is a timely and depressing police procedural about the murder of an immigrant and the growing racial and xenophobic tensions in post-Brexit England.

This is book #3 in the Manon Bradshaw series. While this book can be read as a standalone, I think the reader won’t fully appreciate Manon’s character if they skip the first two books in this series.

When a Lithuanian immigrant is found hanging from a tree, suicide is believed to be the cause of death, but when a closer look is taken, it appears that the victim might have been murdered. DS Manon Bradshaw and her partner are pulled into the investigation, bringing them into contact with a group of desperate and displaced people struggling to survive:
“People searching for a better life are despised for wanting it when native strivers are admired. What’s the name for this?”

At the same time, Manon’s personal life is a bit of a mess. But isn’t it always? Struggling to balance her career with motherhood, with aging and relationship problems with her partner, Mark, Manon is in a shambles.

Split between Manon, Davy, and one of the Lithuanian immigrants, Steiner explores growing tensions and divides over immigration.

This book is not easy to read. The topics of xenophobia and racism were only too real and timely. There are no happy endings in this story. On top of it all, Steiner’s Author’s note brought me to tears.

However, Mannon’s witticisms made this book bearable to read! I love her snarky brain and the way she thinks.

Below are just a few of my favorite gems from Manon (and one from Mark):

“I hate positive thinking. Just a way of bullying people, making them feel bad stuff is their fault.”

“Still, it’s nice to be on the road with you, visiting some racists.”

“Ignorance is the new black. All you need right now is some knee-jerk reactions and a Twitter feed. All you need is to ‘feel you’re right.’”

“Truly stupid people are too stupid to realize they are stupid.”

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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White supremacists live everywhere—not just the US—as an immigrant exploitation ring is embroiled in a murder case in northeast England. How can Officer Manon Bradshaw deal with all that while also fighting the middle-age doldrums? Remain Silent tells the story of Lithuanian refugees that are used as cheap labor in a chicken farm.

This book deals with important issues. However, I just never got into it and had to force myself to read to the end. It may have been because I hadn’t read the two previous books in the series. I wasn’t connected to the characters. The whole plot both with the case and with Manon and her partner Davy’s home life seemed a bit too depressing to me. Despite those complaints, I liked the twists at the end. 3 stars for Remain Silent.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

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The torture and brutality by the characters in this book made it hard for me to read. The writing was ok - but didn't capture me as much as Steiner's earlier books. There seemed to be a lot of repetition, especially with the continual 'thoughts' of the main character. It was just an 'ok' book for me.

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In the third book in Steiner's Manon Bradshaw series, we find Manon at work part-time in cold cases, leaving her "time" to raise her toddler, Teddy, and teenage son, Fly. She's adjusting to domestic living with Mark and all the bliss that comes with it: who will take out the garbage, pick up the kids, cook dinner, and more. Then Teddy and Manon take a walk to the park and discover a body: a Lithuanian immigrant named Lukas hanging from a tree, a note attached to his body. Manon's annoying and perhaps clueless boss assigns her to lead the case--with her faithful partner Davy Walker--and Manon is back, attempting to juggle work, motherhood, and what could be a very dangerous murder case.

I love Manon and this was yet another well-written mystery from Steiner. The introduction to this book features one of the most amazing, realistic, and yes, depressing, ruminations on marriage, life, and death that I may have ever read. In fact, Steiner so perfectly captures real life, especially juggling being a working mom. I love that she doesn't shy away from how hard Manon finds parenting, or gloss over the difficulties of marriage. Once or twice I might have found these tirades a bit tiresome (back to the case, I say!), but overall, it's refreshing to find a book that tells it like it is.

Speaking of, this is such a timely read, focusing on immigration, racism, and the overall hatred of "otherness" that seems to permeate the world right now. The central plot focuses on the infusion of immigrants, particularly Eastern Europeans, into England. The story told is a heartbreaking one of anger and loss. Steiner deftly weaves a tale from multiple points of view and time periods--we hear not only from Manon and Davy, but Lukas' friend Matis, who spearheads the pair's immigration from Lithuania, only for them to find themselves basically prisoners. They are indebted to the man who brought them over, trapped in a smelly workhouse, and forced to do menial labor to pay off their "debt." With Lukas dead, the story leading up to his death unfolds, and it's absolutely riveting and heartbreaking. Steiner handles the sensitive issues surrounding immigration and racism wonderfully, crafting a well-done mystery that still gives this topic its due.

"'Why do they hate us so much?'"

Overall, I cannot recommend this book (4.5 stars) or this series enough. I have followed Steiner on social media for years and was devastated to learn she was diagnosed with a brain tumor after submitting this book. My heart goes out to her and her recovery.

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Susie Steiner's third Manon Bradshaw novel, "Remain Silent," focuses on Lithuanian migrants who travel to England, hoping for a better life. Instead, they become the slaves of a sadistic taskmaster who treats them abominably. They do menial and exhausting work, go to sleep on filthy mattresses, and receive little compensation for their efforts. One of them is Matis, who talked his good-hearted friend, Lukas Balsys, into answering an ad that promised them economic opportunities far from their native Klaipeda. When the pair reach their destination, they realize that they have been duped. Along with their fellow Eastern Europeans, Matis and Lukas find themselves in a revolting hovel, doomed to horrific weeks and months of soul-destroying labor.

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Manon Bradshaw has mixed feelings about her domestic situation. She and her partner, Mark Talbot, are raising an adorable toddler, Teddy, and an adolescent named Fly, whom Manon adopted years earlier and loves dearly. Forty-six-year-old Manon is profane, comically self-deprecating (she cannot help but notice that she is getting paunchy), critical of others (she loves Mark, but he sometimes gets on her nerves), and can be prickly towards her co-workers. She has little respect for her officious boss, Glenda McBain, although Manon is fond of DS Davy Walker, a hard-working and dedicated detective who puts up with Manon's prickly personality. Manon and Davy have the challenging task of investigating a series of suspicious deaths and, in addition, they are keeping an eye on a band of right-wing thugs who despise refugees and disseminate hate-filled rhetoric on social media and in street demonstrations.

The author’s frequent use of flashbacks and constantly changing viewpoints are confusing and disrupt the story's flow. On the other hand, Steiner makes the most of her ripped-from-the-headlines themes. Tragically, when disreputable opportunists exploit foreign-born men and women, the victims are usually too frightened to turn to the authorities for help. In addition to tracking down felons, Manon and Davy face challenging and stressful personal problems that force them to take a hard look at what they really want out of life. "Remain Silent" is an engrossing, timely, and dark police procedural in which Steiner demonstrates that deep-seated resentment, intolerance, and selfishness can undermine relationships, tear apart communities, and precipitate acts of horrific violence.

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"Remain Silent" by Susie Steiner, Random House, 320 pages, June 2, 2020.

Detective Inspector Manon Bradshaw is happy to be working part-time in the cold case department of the Cambridgeshire police force as she now has a 2-year-old and an adopted teenager.

Manon, 46, is late to motherhood. She is stressed because her husband, Mark Talbot, isn't doing his share of the housework. Manon is going to counseling alone because Mark refuses to go.

On one of her days off, she is on a walk with her toddler, Teddy, in a suburban neighborhood. She discovers the body of a Lithuanian immigrant hanging from a tree with a note attached. Her partner, Davy Walker, is sent to the scene.

When he learns that the dead man is an immigrant, Davy goes to the police Fenland Exploitation Team for advice. The deceased is Lukas Balsys, a Lithuanian migrant worker, whose gang master Edikas is brutal. Two other people were earlier found hanging in the woods, but both deaths were considered suicides.

The new Detective Superintendent in charge is Glenda McBain. She orders Manon to help in the investigation. Meanwhile, Mark is ill, their son, Fly, is having problems in school, and Manson's best friend is getting divorced.

"Remain Silent" is the third in the series. The plot of this one isn't as interesting as the first two, which I really enjoyed. Manon is dealing with so many domestic crises that the story line is muddled.

The sad news is that the author, who went blind from retinitis pigmentosa when her first book was published, discloses in the afterword that she has been diagnosed with advanced brain cancer.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

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Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and Susie Steiner for the opportunity to read and review her latest thriller. This is book 3 in the wonderful Detective Manon Bradshaw series and another 5 star read!

Manon is going through lots in her personal life - dealing with the pains of middle age, a relationship turned a bit stale, a teenager and an active toddler, let alone her job which has been working on cold cases. This is the definition of trying to have it all and feeling less than successful on all fronts. When Manon discovers a dead body in the park while with her small child, she is put in charge of the case. While at first glance the death appears to be by suicide, a closer look seems to lead to murder and takes Manon on a wild ride of investigating anti-immigration factions as well as slave traffickers.

I love Manon - she is completely real, says what she thinks, even when that tends to get her in trouble. She is loyal to a fault and cares deeply about her family and friends.

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This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Manon a detective finds a body hanging in a tree while at the park with her son. There is a note attached to the body in Lithuanian, so it is investigated as a hate crime. I thought the premise of this story was good and kept me reading, but I did not like Manon, the main character. There was too much of her "thoughts" that were paragraphs and paragraphs and paragraphs and were repeated throughout the book. She was having a conversation with Davy and thought about a conversation she had with someone else that went on and on. She was too fat, she was too old, she was unhappy in her relationship. This theme was repeated, every time she looked at food, got up from a chair, saw another couple. She was also way too harsh. Didn't seem like there was any sympathy in her whatsoever. I also felt like the story timeline jumped without really telling the viewer.

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Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhousepublishing for the opportunity to read and review this book #RemainSilent by @SusieSteiner
Pub date June2,2020
Book 3 of the Manon Bradshaw series did not disappoint. I love that the author shows Manon with all her foibles, and her character flaws. Manon is just like all of us, with the running commentary in her head. The plot of the book revolves around a suicide of a refugee who is part of the labor imported to do the backbreaking work others wont do. It is tragic to read that people are used as slave labor in this time. The side plots of Manon and her friends lives adds so much to this book.i highly recommend

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Remain Silent by Susie Steiner is the third installment of her Inspector Manon Bradshaw series. It can be read as a stand alone novel as I had not read the two previous books but I will be soon.

Manon is perfect in her imperfection. In her forties, the mom of a toddler and adoptive teen son, a husband who is not willing to go to counseling with her so she goes alone, working part time on cold cases and selling her soul to the devil if her kids will let her sleep for five more minutes. I so want to have a drink with her and complain about stuff!

Her life is uprooted when on a walk with her son she discovers the dead body of a Lithuanian immigrant hanging from a tree with a cryptic note attached to him. She is thrown back into full time detective life as a very disturbing story of human trafficking and slavery of immigrants emerges.

This book becomes more than a police procedural as we see in England, as we do unfortunately here in the U.S., national populism rise and bigotry rear it's ugliness. The author has a point to make and she does it while keeping her core characters real, honest and at times delightfully snarky.

There were parts of this book that I found very hard to read. The depraved treatment of my fellow humans made me physically ill. It was hard to feel sympathetic to Manon's domestic issues when torture is coming up in the next chapter. If violence is a trigger please beware of it when reading this novel.

Also, please read the author's notes at the back of the book. They are so important to what she was and is dealing with while writing this book.

I received a free copy of this book from Random House via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All Opinions are my own.

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DS Manon Bradshaw is back at work and struggling a bit coping with child care and a hated supervisor. Then she stumbles across a body hanging from a tree in a park when she's with her son and all bets are off. This is a complex procedural that's as much about Manon's personal life as it is a search for answers as to what happened to Lukas. Told from multiple third person perspectives, it's the story of men brought from Lithuania to the UK who think they'll make money to send home to their families. It's also the story of young Elise, daughter of a hateful man, and Davy, who is not sure if he really wants to get married. Most of all its about Manon, who is worrying about Mark even as she's seeking justice. It's not straightforward but there aren't so much surprises as there are different paths. Don't worry, btw, if you haven't read the first two - this is fine as a standalone. It's topical and piercing. Make sure you read the afterword. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An excellent read and I'm very hopeful that there will be another.

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I really enjoyed the first two books in this series set in Cambridgeshire and was eagerly looking forward to reading this third one. However, I had a hard time involving myself in the story, and the entire novel fell somewhat flat for me.

Manon is again her usually intriguing self, as she works part time and juggles family life with her partner and two children. After she discovers the hanging of an immigrant worker near her home, she is dragged deeper into the mystery of why. And thus, the thought provoking themes of immigrant labor and racism form the backdrop of the story.

There is plenty of suspense in the novel and a few nice twists and turns occur along the way to a reasonable conclusion, which — unfortunately — felt rather rushed. Nonetheless, the book is very well written, and the characters are well established, just as they were in the author’s previous novels.

All in all, this is a good story that is very well told, but I just could not get into it as much as I did the previous two novels.

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In this third outing in the series, DCI Manon Bradshaw has been working cold cases and has been just fine with that. But when she chances upon the body of an Eastern European worker hanging in a tree in a local park, she is assigned to lead the Major Crime Unit investigation.

She already has a lot on her plate at home with a two-year-old and an adopted teenage son, but now her husband has fallen worrisomely ill and her best friend's marriage seems to be breaking up. Even worse--she's feeling fat and middle-aged! All this is dealt with with a good dose of snarky humor. You either laugh or you cry.

The timely topic at the heart of this story though is immigration--how the local people feel about the changes it is bringing to their society and how poorly immigrants are often treated. There are low-paying, dirty jobs that only immigrants are willing to do but there are unscrupulous employers only too willing to exploit their vulnerabilities.

This is a decent mystery with some twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. Manon is a gem!

I was sorry to read in the author's Acknowledgements that she is seriously ill with a malignant brain tumor. My prayers go out to her and hope that she gets her wish for five more years to finish bringing up her boys.

I received an arc of this new mystery from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thanks for the opportunity!

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Well written, captivating and engaging. Another win for Susie Steiner. I sped through this book as I wanted to read the ending. Lots of plot devices. Interesting setting.

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This was the third book about detective Manon Bradshaw, and honestly, I wish I had stopped after the first. They’ve lost steam drastically in my opinion, and this one felt like a mess of ideas and storylines and attempts at relevance/deeper themes that just didn’t work. Not a fan.

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This is the third book in the DS Manon Bradshaw series, and I was excited to pick it up. I’ve loved the rest of the series - Manon is just SO REAL, so messy, so hilariously in her head. Parts of her life are just so relatable (the domestic parts), and then her professional life is so foreign, which is refreshing.

Let me just say: if you liked the first two books, you won’t be disappointed in this one. Steiner continues to deliver.

I will just put in a personal caveat: I started this galley in late February, and just hit a point around 30% where I couldn’t bear to pick it back up. It might have coincided with the COVID pandemic becoming a REAL THING, and this book is DECIDEDLY not light. Immigration and the bigoted backlash to it, modern-day slavery, retaliation maiming - JFC. I think about 30% in is where you’re really getting into Matis & Lukas’s perspective (and maybe Elise?), and it is just HEAVY. I did get back to it in mid-May and finished it in just a few days. But there was quite a big break in the middle.

It’s not a light book. Manon’s facing some hard home-life stuff, as are her friends. People are generally terrible, in the way that people are. You might save this book for time where you have a lot of emotional resilience?

The author’s note at the end had me gasping.

So....I guess just go in prepared? I love Manon, and I absolutely don’t regret the time I spent with this book. But some days (most days) it felt like it weighed 10,000 lbs each time I picked it back up to read.

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This is the third book the Manon Bradshaw Detective series. These stories focus more on the procedural side of things, but after spending time with Manon, you will get to the know her personal side and to me that is the best part of the story.

The case that is the focus is that of a mysterious death of an immigrant, who Bradshaw found hanging in the local park where she had taken her young son. Bradshaw, had been recently working cold cases after coming back from maternity leave, but of course she is asked to join the team that will run this case.

Alternately Manon is dealing with her home life, and she is dealing with a lot. Unfortunately, I wanted more of these scenes, because by the far they were the best. That is when I felt we got the best of Manon, even when she was trying to push through.

This was my least favorite in the series. I found myself not even really caring about the case Bradshaw was trying to solve, so my mind was wandering a lot. At times this book felt very blah and the ending just felt like why did you end this book that way? I do want to make one note that I did read the author’s note at the end and I do think I felt more sympathetic to this story. I am not sure if this was placed at the beginning, I might have gone into this with a different mindset, but I will never know.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Thank you to Net Galley for sending me an advanced copy of this book to review. I enjoyed Susie Steiner's first two books about Detective Manon Bradshaw, so was very excited to read this third book in the series. This one centers on the suspicious death of a Lithuanian immigrant found hanged in a tree by Manon herself during an early morning visit to the park with her toddler son. Manon is currently working part time in cold cases, as she tries to find a work life balance with her newish partner Mark, teenage son, toddler and the stark reality of how exhausting it is to get through everyday life. The plot itself, a vivid portrayal of the exploitation of immigrants working low skilled jobs, is sad and told in stark details. DS Manon is determined to find justice for the victim. I found myself thinking about this book long after finishing it.

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