‘The Woman Who Laughed’ by Simon Mason

Published by Riverrun London,
5 June 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-52943- 972-4 (PB)

If, like me, you first encountered Simon Mason’s work through his quirky DI Ryan Wilkins series, this one may prove something of a surprise. The Finder Mysteries, of which this is the third, are quite different. The protagonist, an uprooted lone wolf Iraqi named Talib, is far more shadowy than the in-your-face Wilkins; we learn only a few shreds about his background, enough to explain why he is alone but very little more. He makes very little attempt to impress his personality on the people he meets; part of his technique is to allow them to fill the space he leaves.

A Finder, it appears, is an individual with keen instincts and a talent for listening and piecing together a puzzle, called in by a police force when their investigation has stalled but they are keen to solve the mystery. In Talib’s case, he arrives, finds the solution, takes his fee and departs, leaving behind nothing but a vague impression, and perhaps a book under the bed.

This time, Ella Bailey, a young female sex worker, was believed murdered several years ago, but her body was never found. Now she has been seen, alive and well, by a witness who is not a hundred per cent reliable; and her distinctive handbag, which disappeared along with her body, has also turned up, hanging on the door handle of a café she used to frequent.

Talib works methodically and painstakingly. He retraces Ella’s footsteps, and interviews everyone he can think of who had knowledge of or an interest in her. He begins with her foster parents; her mother is tense and nervous, and her father is still angry, and cannot understand why a bright young woman who was a dedicated and promising athlete gave up a brilliant future to become a sex worker.

He moves on to various men in Ella’s life. Her pimp and boyfriend Caine is suspicious and combative. Dean Burton, the main witness to her supposed murder, is garrulous and keen to tell all he knows. Talib also talks to Flynn, the affable but erratic vagrant who claims to have seen Ella a few days ago, and looks for Platt, her drug dealer. As he visits various places aiming to build a rounded picture of Ella, he also encounters her chaotic friend Loz, who is clearly hiding something, and learns about a mysterious man who carries a red kitbag.

All these characters, and some peripheral ones including DS Nunkoo, his police contact, and Puck, his eccentric neighbour at the Airbnb he stays at, emerge as real people, even though Talib himself remains less distinct. The story takes place in Sheffield, which is largely rendered in terms of place names, but certain locations stand out: the impersonal Airbnb apartment; middle-class Eccleshall and leafy Whirlowdale, where Ella spent her childhood and went to school; a creepy house in run-down Jordanthorpe where Talib encounters trouble; the malodorous alley where Ella was presumed murdered.

The concept of the Finder is an interesting addition to the wide range of crime fiction protagonists. Perhaps as the series develops, Talib will become less of a mystery man. But perhaps not. Either way, I look forward to finding out. Simon Mason is clearly an author with tricks up his sleeve.
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Reviewer Lynne Patrick

Simon Mason is an author of children's and adult books. His first adult novel, a black comedy entitled The Great English Nude, won the Betty Trask first novel award and Moon Pie was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction prize. Running Girl was his first story starring Garvie Smith. Simon lives in Oxford with his wife and their two children.  

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.