Tuesday - First Chapter - First Paragraph - Missing, Presumed

Each Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea shares the first part of a book that she is reading or thinking about reading.  This week I'm sharing the first few paragraphs of Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner.  This was my July selection from Book of the Month last year and I'm just getting around to reading it or considering reading it.  The first book in a series featuring Manon Bradshaw, member of the Cambridgeshire Police Force.  Based upon the first few paragraphs, I'm sold.  See what you think:

     She can feel hope ebbing, like the Christmas lights on fade in Pound Saver.  Manon tells herself to focus on the man sitting opposite, whose name might be Brian but could equally be Keith, who is crossing his legs and his foot bangs her shin just where the bone is nearest the surface.  She reaches down to rub it but he's oblivious.
     'Sensitive,' his profile had said, along with an interest in military aircraft.  She wonders now what on earth she was thinking when she arranged it, but then compatibility seemed no marker for anything.  The last date with a town planner scored 78 percent--she'd harbored such hopes; he even liked Thomas Hardy--yet Manon spent the evening flinching each time his spittle landed on her face, which was remarkably often.
     Two years of Internet dating.  It's fair to say they haven't flown by.


Blurb:

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 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 that 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, 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.

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Have you read this one?  It's been out for a bit, so some probably have.  You know, it's passages such as the one above that make me so delighted that I never had the 'opportunity' to do Internet dating.  I suppose for some it works out well, but I've heard some pretty awful tales.  And yes, this is indeed a police procedural, so there will be a body and a crime.  The 2nd book in the series, Persons Unknown, will be published here in the US on July 4th.