Lost and Never Found

'Simon Mason has created crime fiction's most entertaining double act in decades' Mick Herron

'As great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades' Stephen Fry

Oxford. A city of lost things - and buried crimes.

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 Wojcik 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.

What readers are saying about Lost and Never Found

5 An engaging detective double act

5 Best in the series so far

5* Set in present day Oxford, it is Morse times two

As in all fine novels, it is the voice that grips you: ironic, eloquent, but compassionate. -- Nicholas Clee Bookbrunch
Better than Morse in its bite, pace, urgency and characterisation. The Critic
Mason has created a gripping case while making his cops so human they leap off the pages. Peterborough Telegraph
Superb Sun
Class conflict and police corruption are at the heart of the third novel in this superb series. Sunday Times (Pick of the Month, Jan 2024)
Class conflicts and police corruption are at the heart of the third novel in this superb series. The Times (The 10 best crime and mystery books of 2024)
The satisfyingly knotted plot is underpinned by acute psychology Mail on Sunday
An original and unexpectedly attractive character Literary Review
My favourite UK series. -- M W Craven
Simon Mason's Ray Wilkins crime novels are my latest addiction. I wait impatiently for each one. What are the triple pillars of any great story? Character, Plot and Language. In the twin heroes of his novels (both called Wilkins and so unalike: they somehow create together one immortal police detective) he has created characters for the ages. His plots race thrillingly around an Oxford you never knew existed. His language though ... without exhibiting a trace of "writerly" self-consciousness, he is capable of phrase-making and description of the very highest quality. Those three perfect pillars support truly memorable crime novels, as great a contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any writer for decades. -- Stephen Fry

SIMON MASON has pursued parallel careers as a publisher and an author, whose YA crime novels Running Girl, Kid Got Shot and Hey, Sherlock! feature the sixteen-year-old slacker genius Garvie Smith. A former Managing Director of David Fickling Books, where he worked with many wonderful writers, including Philip Pullman, he has also taught at Oxford Brookes University and has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.

Lost and Never Found is the third book in the DI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries. The first book, A Killing in November, received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. The Second book, The Broken Afternoon, was a Times Audio Book of the Week and a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month.

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