Missing Person: Alice cover art

Missing Person: Alice

The Finder Mysteries, Book 1

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Missing Person: Alice

By: Simon Mason
Narrated by: Matthew Spencer
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About this listen

 A Guardian best crime and thriller book of 2024

'Excellently lean and tense crime novel with a touch of the nouveau roman about it' Ian Rankin
'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?

The Case of the Lonely Accountant, book two in the Finder Mysteries, is OUT NOW! ©2024 Simon Mason (P)2024 Quercus Editions Limited Crime Fiction Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Thriller & Suspense
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I loved the narration, the gentle character of the Finder, the quiet, clever unfolding of the story.

Gentle, thoughtful story

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I’ve read some of Simon Mason’s Di Wilkes series and love them. Action packed, Oxford setting, 2 contrasting detectives, much humour. This series is completely different. It’s narrated by a man called “ Finder”, that’s his job, to find missing persons and what happened to them. He has a name, mentioned once, and came from Baghdad to live in London many years ago. He’s called in to find Alice, a 12 year old girl, missing for 9 years, possibly murdered. He’s hired by the local police force and is licensed to make enquiries. He goes about it in a methodical way, speaking first to her parents, school and anyone who knew, saw or came into contact with her. We meet many characters and Finder thinks and speculates. He is thorough and determined. Gets there in the end and it is a satisfactory ending. He stays in a local b & b, and the widowed landlady becomes fond of him, but he doesn’t take advantage or commit. When it’s over, he’s off. It was curiously relaxing to listen to it and has given me hours of pleasure. The narrator was sensitive and excellent. I’ll read more of the series.

Unusual, but interesting

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The story was intriguing and the narration was the best I've ever had the pleasure of listening to🙌 I listen to a book every day and familiar with so many narrators but this guy tops them all !

Absolutely loved it

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