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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
I've been enjoying the Simon Serrailler series since I discovered it a few years back in Canada. Luckily, Susan Hill's detective has found a home here in America as well.
As I said in my review of Shadows in the Street, Simon is a lot like Adam Dalgliesh, only with more family. And like Kate Atkinson, Ms. Hill has a number of seemingly unrelated threads going through her mysteries.
The main mystery is the 15-year-old case of the missing Harriet Lowther (interestingly, the jacket cover calls her "Joanne"), whose skeleton was found after a major flood. Nearby another skeleton is found - only this time there's no cold case for a missing person. Then there's his disintegrating relationship with his triplet sister, Cat, upon whom his spring some disturbing family news. There's Lenny, dealing with her partner Olive's continued descent into at-times violent dementia... Jocelyn, recently diagnosed with MND and rapidly deteriorating physically, who needs to decide how her end-of-life care will unfold... and Rachel, with whom Simon falls in love but who is still married to her much older, Parkinson's-riddled husband.
Ultimately, of course, the mystery is solved and the threads tied-in (not up: there's always some room for ambiguity and doors left open for the next installment). While I know that Lafferton is an imaginary town, after reading this series I feel that I should be able to visit there. It's also nice that we spend time with the inner lives of most of these characters, not just the "hero" and criminals. If only I didn't have to wait another couple of years before the next book...
As I said in my review of Shadows in the Street, Simon is a lot like Adam Dalgliesh, only with more family. And like Kate Atkinson, Ms. Hill has a number of seemingly unrelated threads going through her mysteries.
The main mystery is the 15-year-old case of the missing Harriet Lowther (interestingly, the jacket cover calls her "Joanne"), whose skeleton was found after a major flood. Nearby another skeleton is found - only this time there's no cold case for a missing person. Then there's his disintegrating relationship with his triplet sister, Cat, upon whom his spring some disturbing family news. There's Lenny, dealing with her partner Olive's continued descent into at-times violent dementia... Jocelyn, recently diagnosed with MND and rapidly deteriorating physically, who needs to decide how her end-of-life care will unfold... and Rachel, with whom Simon falls in love but who is still married to her much older, Parkinson's-riddled husband.
Ultimately, of course, the mystery is solved and the threads tied-in (not up: there's always some room for ambiguity and doors left open for the next installment). While I know that Lafferton is an imaginary town, after reading this series I feel that I should be able to visit there. It's also nice that we spend time with the inner lives of most of these characters, not just the "hero" and criminals. If only I didn't have to wait another couple of years before the next book...
I read most of this on the flight home and finished early this morning when I woke at 3:30 am (adjusting to being back in my own time zone). There were many threads I knew would come together in the end though at the end of the book, not all answers are given.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This has to be one of the most interesting and gripping books I’ve read yet. It hasn’t taken long for me to add Susan Hill to one of my must read authors. This book solidifies that even further. I’m still in catch up mode with this author, but I’m closing in quickly! This book has Simon pursuing a cold case. It’s a time of cutbacks
and worries that the Lafferton police station may close, leaving the town with the closest police station 15 miles away. Nobody is going to like that. In the meantime, Simon’s boss is laid up and there is a need for an additional Detective Inspector. However, a suitable candidate can’t be found. When the body of a young girl is discovered washed out of a hiding place after heavy rains and flooding, it is quickly identified as the 15 year old daughter of a local business owner. However, another body is also discovered. That one takes longer, but is soon identified as a Polish au pair who disappeared one day. There are peripheral characters in the book, two of which have a direct connection. I’ll be reading the next book in the series. I wouldn’t be surprised if things come together there, but you never know. Susan Hill often leaves things dangling. After all, isn’t that true of life?
The only problem I had with this book was that one of the main strands of the plot didn't really link in with the others very strongly. But on the other hand I like the way you never know quite what is going to turn out to be significant in these books, which is much better than other more predictable crime fiction.
Susan Hill is a very gifted writer who brings you into the heart of a devestating case of missing teenager. Lafferton is populated with real people with lives. Can't wait for the next installment.
I really enjoy this series, more for the ongoing story of the central characters than the crime aspect.
I've enjoyed previous titles in this series but I'm ditching this one. What is it with Susan Hill and depressing, terminal medical conditions? So far, characters in this series have suffered and died from CJD, cancer, brain tumour, and massive heart attack. The subject of euthanasia occupied a significant strand in a previous book but was at least subtly rendered in that one. It surfaces again early on in The Betrayal of Trust by way of a character suffering from Motor Neurone Disease and this time it's clearly going to be pounded with a sledgehammer. The twin sister of Simon Serailler, the detective, is a GP and thus the portal to all of this misery. By definition a murder mystery deals in death but as a reader I don't need all these extra side-servings of it. I've scanned other reviews and gathered from them that other characters in this book, whom I haven't yet met, suffer from dementia and Parkinson's disease. Is Susan Hill working her way through a medical dictionary? Many other reviews also mention that the mystery is unsatisfying. So I'm done!
I love that Hill doesn't feel the need to tie everything up in a neat package. The different layers of the story overlap and come together to paint a picture, but there are still threads left hanging, some to be picked up in a future volume, perhaps, and some just to gently settle into their place among life's unanswered questions. It's a mystery novel, but it's also a novel about people, relationships, and choices.