Lost and Never Found - Simon Mason

There's no shortage of crime novels, good crime novels at that. And there's no shortage of crime novels with detective duos. But what sets Simon Mason's series apart is having his duo bear the same surname! And then having them as polar opposites. Ray and Ryan - chalk and cheese, yin and yang, night and day, diamonds and dust, fire and ice - ne'er the twain shall meet, yet they get results. And in Oxford, the city of gleaming spires, a perception of intellect and academia, our dynamic duo explores the polar opposites of society, the rich, the privileged, the homeless and the drug addicts. 

I love how so many  chapters begin with a flowing, protracted description of the current state of things in terms of weather, mood and environment,  you can imagine it in a film or TV presentation before the camera cuts to the nitty gritty of the story or in this case the chapter. 

But oh, Mr. Mason! You rascal! Putting your readers on the red herring diet! The book boasts a complex plot throwing plenty of clues our way but never quite letting us join the dots. It can be infuriating! My prime suspect kept changing as events unfolded. I would love to be the Spoiler Queen of 2024 and divulge the clever twists and turns in the action and offer my comments........ but I won't. Instead I'll offer all things blurbish.

At three o'clock in the morning, Emergency Services receives a call. 'This is Zara Fanshawe. Always lost and never found.' An hour later, the wayward celebrity's Rolls Royce Phantom is found abandoned in dingy Becket Street. The paparazzi go wild. 

For some reason, news of Zara's disappearance prompts homeless woman Lena Wójcik to search the camps, nervously, for the bad-tempered vagrant known as 'Waitrose', a familiar sight in Oxford pushing his trolley of possessions. But he's nowhere to be found either. 

Who will lead the investigation and cope with the media frenzy? Suave, prize-winning, Oxford-educated DI Ray Wilkins is passed over in favour of his partner, gobby, trailer-park educated DI Ryan Wilkins (no relation). You wouldn't think Ray would be happy. He isn't. You wouldn't think Ryan would be any good at national press presentations. He isn't. 

And when legendary cop Chester Lynch takes a shine to Ray - and takes against Ryan - things are only going to get even messier.

The characterisations are clever. I find Ryan exasperating. I've known people like him and I've never understood why they appear to go out of their way to be obnoxious. I think that given past misdemeanours Ryan only remains in the Police Force by the skin of his teeth. But his persistence and determination to solve crimes coupled with his ability to intuit and see what others may miss are his saving graces. The relationship he enjoys with his young son is endearing. Little Ryan is an advanced three year old full of questions and observations with a more defined sense of propriety than his father ! Ray, too can be irritating for the opposite reason - he seems too good! Always immaculately turned out, playing by the rules, seeming to get it right where Ryan gets it wrong. So as much as the reader is invested in the crimes and the solving of them we are also invested in the dynamic between these two cops, their relationship with each other, and their individual relationships in their personal lives. 

This is the third in the series and I think it's the best or maybe it's that I enjoyed it more than the others. That sense of reacquainting oneself with familiar characters that allows you to leap straight into the guts of a story without having to get to know everybody. The narrative moves along demanding the reader's attention and it is easy to become absorbed so much so that any requirement to stop reading and put the book down felt like an insult! I did feel it fell away a little towards the end of the book. I did wonder if that was because I didn't want the perpetrator to be found because if they were the book would end! 

And now, I wait for the next in the series..........

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin and Elizabeth Masters at riverrun for a gifted copy.