Title: Finding Suzy by David Videcette
Date Published: 5th August 2021
Genre: True Crime
Description:
How can someone just disappear?
Step inside a real-life, missing person investigation in this compelling, true crime must-read.
Uncover what happened to missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, as David Videcette takes you on a quest to unpick her mysterious disappearance and scrutinise the shadowy ‘Mr Kipper’.
One overcast Monday in July 1986, 25-year-old estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanished whilst showing a smart London property to a mysterious ‘Mr Kipper’.
Despite the baffling case dominating the news and one of the largest missing persons cases ever mounted, police failed to find a shred of evidence establishing what had happened to her.
Sixteen years later, following a second investigation and under pressure from Suzy’s desperate parents, police named convicted rapist and murderer John Cannan as their prime suspect. However, the Crown Prosecution Service refused to charge him, citing a lack of evidence.
High-profile searches were conducted, yet Suzy’s body was never found; the trail that might lead investigators to her, long since lost.
Haunted by another missing person case, investigator and former Scotland Yard detective, David Videcette, has spent five years painstakingly reinvestigating Suzy’s cold case disappearance.
Through a series of incredible new witness interviews and fresh groundbreaking analysis, he uncovers piece by piece what happened to Suzy and why the case was never solved.
People don’t just disappear…
Review:
I want to thank the TBC Review Group for providing me with a copy of Finding Suzy in exchange for an honest review.
Suzy Lamplugh’s name was vaguely familiar to me as I vaguely remember seeing something about them reopening the case when I was a teenager, but I didn’t really know the ins and out before reading this book.
The case was an intriguing one. A young estate agent goes missing after supposedly meeting with a mysterious ‘Mr Kipper’. The trail went cold quickly and to this day hasn’t been solved, even though there was a lot of speculation over the years and even a prime suspect.
With the help of his researcher Caroline, David Videcette uses his years as an investigator to put forward where the original and subsequent police investigations may have gone wrong and give a credible theory to what he thinks may have happened to Suzy.
Reading this story both horrified and fascinated me. Imagine a loved one just disappearing and never being found? I know in the UK there’s over two thousand missing persons cases each year, a fact which is quite scary when you think about it.
I enjoyed how the story unfolded, told in a mostly first person narration like you were there seeing the story through the author’s eyes and getting his insights.
You can honestly see the painstaking work that went into the book, tracking down people from over thirty years ago, probing into the memories and conducting detailed interviews.
I found occasionally the story didn’t flow as well; it got a little bogged down in minor details, which in the long run didn’t matter too much to the story, but that didn’t spoil my overall enjoyment.
Finding Suzy was an informative and gripping read that if you love true crime documentaries, I think you will love this.
About The Author:
As an investigator David Videcette has chased numerous dangerous criminals and interviewed thousands of witnesses. He is a former Scotland Yard detective with expertise in the fields of counter-terror operations and organised crime.
David puts his policing knowledge to good use investigating cold cases in his true crime series, Investigations by David Videcette. He is also the author of the Detective Inspector Jake Flannagan thrillers.
When he is not writing, he consults on security operations for high-net-worth individuals and is a media commentator for broadcasters and newspapers around the world.
custom retreat organiser. In 2019, she moved to Cyprus, and island in the Mediterranean Sea, where she organises private writer’s retreats, is inspired 24/7, and feeds more stray cats than she can count. 
On The Shelf Reviews 