I’d read and enjoyed the first 2 books in the Manon Bradshaw series and really enjoyed them – so when I saw Marian Keyes mentioned on Twitter that a third was coming out in May, I immediately saw if it was available for request on NetGalley – and it was!

Here is the blurb.

“The body of a young migrant is found hanging from a tree.
No signs of struggle. No indication that it is anything other than a tragic suicide.
Except for a note, pinned to his trousers, that reads ‘The dead cannot speak’.
A murder investigation begins with DI Manon Bradshaw at the helm. But with the other migrants unwilling to speak, and protests on the streets, hatred is starting to drown out the facts.
 Can Manon uncover the truth before it happens again?”

I think this might just be my favourite of all of the Manon Bradshaw books – it is great!

As usual it twists and turns with a police investigation – along with the private lives of the police too.  Manon’s homelife is also undergoing turmoil as her partner has a cancer diagnosis and she has a teenager and toddler to cope with too.  I loved this side of it – and my favourite quote has to be ‘I’d rather boil my head in oil than home school’ – a statement with which I completely concur and is particularly relevant in the current climate!  (It also reminds me of when I was taking our son to hospital in an ambulance when he was about 3 and had a nasty head injury, and the paramedic asked if I worked or was a stay at home Mum – and I replied ‘I couldn’t be a stay at home Mum, I’d kill one of them’.  Whoops.)

Anyway – back to the book.

Essentially it’s an investigation of a death which looks like a suicide – except for a note on the body which makes it look more like murder.

However, it’s not just a murder investigation – it looks at the treatment of Eastern European migrants in Wisbech and their interaction with the ‘locals’ and how they are treated by their gangmasters.  It feels worryingly relevant and there are definite similarities between some of the people in the book and famous people in the media (mentioning no names!) .

It is clever, and twists and turns – and I think is my favourite of the Manon books. I would thoroughly recommend it when it comes out in May.

I don’t always read the acknowledgements at the end of the book – but I am so glad I did in this instance.  Just after submitting the original manuscript for this book, Susie Steiner was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma brain tumour.  Sadly I know more than I would like to about GBMs – as our friends’ son died from one when he was just 11 years old – 17 months after diagnosis.  The acknowledgements are really moving – and whilst it is clear Susie has a fabulous support network – her fear of the b*stard brain tumour is also evident.  When she said that she didn’t know if she’d still be here for the publication of the book it was just so very very sad.  I was pleased that a quick Twitter search shows Susie is still here and normal life (ranting at TfL, toilet paper purchasing) is still ongoing.  And the fight goes on to find a cure for this horrific disease that kills more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer – and yet has historically only received 1% of the national spend on cancer research.