The Risk of Darkness

Simon Serrailler #3

by Susan Hill

Child abduction, crazy grief of a widowed husband, a derangement that turns to obsession and threats, violence and terror add up in newest cases for handsome, introverted Simon Serrailler. His cool reserve has broken the hearts of several women. Now his own heart troubled by a feisty female priest with red hair.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Audiobook, British Literature, Mystery Thriller, Detective

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

Susan Hill was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1942. Her hometown was later referred to in her novel A Change for the Better (1969) and some short stories especially "Cockles and Mussels".

She attended Scarborough Convent School, where she became interested in theatre and literature. Her family left Scarborough in 1958 and moved to Coventry where her father worked in car and aircraft factories. Hill states that she attended a girls’ grammar school, Barr's Hill. Her fellow pupils included Jennifer Page, the first Chief Executive of the Millennium Dome. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London. By this time she had already written her first novel, The Enclosure which was published by Hutchinson in her first year at university. The novel was criticised by The Daily Mail for its sexual content, with the suggestion that writing in this style was unsuitable for a "schoolgirl".

Her next novel Gentleman and Ladies was published in 1968. This was followed in quick succession by A Change for the Better, I'm the King of the Castle, The Albatross and other stories, Strange Meeting, The Bird of Night, A Bit of Singing and Dancing and In the Springtime of Year, all written and published between 1968 and 1974.

In 1975 she married Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells and they moved to Stratford upon Avon. Their first daughter, Jessica, was born in 1977 and their second daughter, Clemency, was born in 1985. Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year.

Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is becoming one of my favorite series and this has been the best episode so far. the characters continue to be vividly drawn, their actions often woefully human and unexpected. Easy endings and plot resolutions are not part of Hill's metier. She is much wiser than that. And we readers are blessed with the result. I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the Serrailler series. They are like little gifts to myself.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, jeez, where to start?

It says on the cover that this is a "Simon Serrailler Mystery" . . . except that it's not a mystery at all. A serial abductor/killer of children has been at work; early on, that criminal is identified and apprehended (by Serrailler, in a genuinely exciting bit). We never actually find out the eventual fate or the motivations of the killer: all we're given is a sort of "evil incarnate" explanation, which might perhaps satisfy all the holy rollers who stuff the novel's cast list but doesn't, y'know, satisfy me. I seek psychological depth in the novels I read; it's not on offer here. As an added quandary, we never find out what finally happens to the killer. Life? Found guilty? Gets off due to some quirk in the UK judicial system? Is offed by fellow inmates? Who knows?

As a separate plot strand, there's this guy whose beloved wife Lizzie has died horribly from CJD. Driven mad by grief, he takes hostage a sexy young female priest, then, after the crisis is defused, wanders around threatening (or at least so they think) women who to him, in his deranged state, look like the lost Lizzie. I never quite worked out what other crimes he committed; I was, though, miffed not to witness his demise and have it explained but just to be told that "You know that guy who went nuts when his wife died? Well, guess what?"

A principal character's mum dies of natural causes. Another principal character's mum, a psychiatrist, gets bumped off by the grown-up version of a child whom, apparently, she failed decades ago; again, by the novel's end, we have no resolution of this case. I suppose that, as in a soap opera, we're supposed to be panting for the next novel and the resolution of all these untied plot threads. Me, I've never been in a less panting state.

I read the first two of Hill's Serrailler series and assumed she was trying to emulate P.D. James: infernally pompous writing, way too long, but at least effective mysteries. This one seems to be neither a mystery nor a crime novel. I'm really not sure what Hill's trying to do here.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just the kind of mystery series that I love. Susan Hill developes her characters in the small town of Lafferton, so you get to know the townspeople in a limited way, just as you'd nod to them on the street in real life. And the main characters are good people, with real problems and serious personality flaws.
There are a lot of different threads in this one, the main story being solving the case left hanging in the last book. The author has no problem portraying evil psychopaths. They are scarier because they kill for pleasure, not for reason.
The author also has no problem with characters who come and go, get relocated, change jobs, die, any of the myriad things that happen in everyone's life. That's what I love best about this series. Main characters grow and change, the mysteries are complex, and the writing is good. I have 5 more to read so far, I hope she continues her Simon Serrailler developement.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely a stellar series. This third book finds Simon restless, but he is not sure what he is wanting-more excitement and hands on in his detective work, but perhaps something more substantial in his personal life. His sister Cat is content with her full life as a GP, a mother of 3, a farm, but her husband, Chris, is struggling. We have yet to meet the 3rd sibling, Ivo, who is mentioned mysteriously. Life in this busy English town/city is bustling-life, death, sadness, murder, suicide, tragedies, babies, sickness, drugs, loneliness, fulfillment, etc, are so real and true to life. What I love about this is that it is true to life-few major events, filled in with the every day slog, and learning to take pleasure in that slog. Nothing is tied up with a pretty bow.
Can’t wait to get to the next one!

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is #3 in the Simon Serrailler series.

Children have been vanishing. There are no leads, no sightings, no bodies, no forensics.

Then a child is seen being snatched. Suddenly they have a vehicle description and a partial number plate. Will it be enough to catch the abductor? And if it is, are they going to be able to link this abduction to the other missing children?

Another easily readable and enjoyable crime novel/family saga from Susan Hill.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Loved the first one in the series. Number 2 and this one followed cases of child abduction / murder with the same perpetrator. I don't enjoy books where kids are snatched/hurt. This one felt disjointed to me in the way it was written and organized. Lots of dark and sad parts. I love her writing and probably always will, but I think I'll try one more in this series and may give up if it's not a 4 or better for me. British mysteries are my ultimate comfort read, usually, but for the reasons given, I was glad to close the cover on this one.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying this series. Looking forward to reading the next one. Just the right mix of crime & character for me.

[Kay Rollison · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I came across Susan Hill as a judge for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, I remembered that she is best known for her ghost stories and her much hyped Mrs De Winter, a sequel to Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. More recently she has turned to writing crime stories featuring DCI Simon Serrailler. The Risk of Darkness (2006) is the third in a series of five.

Hill is clear that the Serrailler books are crime novels – but not detective stories. She sees the crime novel as ‘a serious literary genre’, which she believes offers the opportunity for comment on contemporary life. She wants to know ‘not ‘who dunnit’ but much more importantly WHY’. So her stories are not police procedurals like the ones I wrote about in a recent post; there is relatively little detection, and solving the crime is not the narrative driver of the novel.

There are three major crimes in the story. Only one of them directly involves Serrailler as a policeman: the kidnapping and presumed murder of a young boy. But it is very much the ‘why’ rather than the ‘who’ that concerns Hill, as the reader knows early in the book who dunnit. Two other deaths affect the lives of Serrailler’s family and friends in the cathedral town where he is stationed, though again it is a question of explanation rather than resolution. Further perspectives are given by parents and neighbours of those involved. Unlike in the detective genre, at least some of the action is left open-ended, which is arguably a realistic way of commenting on life.

I identified two major themes in the story that serve to tie together the otherwise rather disparate plot. These are the relationship between crime, mental derangement and evil, and love, its presence and absence, between men and women, and within families. Is the kidnapper mad or bad? Can such a person, apparently wholly self-centred, love another person? Can someone love them? Is it experiences in childhood that shape the urge to violence? How does thwarted love become a motive for violence? And can a deranged mind be said to be driven by ‘motives’ anyway? Some of these questions are implicit, and others are raised by characters in the story, though they are not the sort of questions that can really be answered. Serrailler nevertheless thinks that the crimes ‘seemed linked in some dreadful intangible way, part of a pattern, part of a connection with him and his work and his life’.

Detective stories, whether police procedural or private investigator, stand or fall by how convincingly the crime is set up and then solved. They may comment on contemporary life, but overall they are judged on the strength of the plot. The problem with writing crime novels that depend on psychological insight rather than plot is that they are much harder to pull off. There are great exponents – Crime and Punishment, for example, or at a less elevated level, the work of Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine. Susan Hill writes very competently, but with no exceptional originality or subtly, about these issues. Serrailler is a reasonably complex character (part-time artist, cold in his relationships with women other than his mother and sister, uncertain about where his career is taking him), but I’m not sure what this characterisation adds to the story. I find some of Hill’s social commentary rather condescending in tone, particularly where she is dealing with her less well-educated characters. And while it is fine to deal at a psychological level, one of the major crimes is not convincingly dealt with at any level.

Given that I’ve said in an earlier post that I’m not overly impressed with the literary capacities of Stella Rimington, chair of the 2011 Man Booker judging panel, and now not overly impressed with Susan Hill, a member of it, it will be interesting to see what sort of writing they award the prize to.

Read this review at What Book to Read

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must be feeling nostalgic for England this week; two posts in a row on British books! This one caught my eye because I used to read Susan Hill when I was in my twenties, when she was writing rather good, creepy ghost stories. I had lost touch with her career for some time, and was quite surprised to see a library recommendation for a Susan Hill... crime novel? Well, I had to read on and find out.


On the face of it, The Risk of Darkness is just another British police procedural, a genre which has its attractions for me when I just need to relax my brain. I landed in the middle of a series, which is always a bit disorienting, but the main characters got sketched in pretty quickly so I wasn't lost for long. There is the usual loner hero; they are generally reserved and private men, whose aura of unattainability and rugged, low-key sexiness has the women round them like flies, and Simon Serailler does not disappoint in that respect. One thing I found strange was that some of the other characters assumed he was gay, and I just couldn't find any explanation of that in this book. Was there something about his personal appearance and manner? All I learned of him was that he has white-blond hair, not generally an indicator of sexual orientation in my experience.


As I got deeper into this novel, I realized that the main character was, in fact, Death. This is not the usual murder-solved-in-the-third-to-last-chapter formula; without spoiling the plot for you, let me just say that you don't have to wait too long for the big catch of the novel. This particular criminal is just part of a dance of death that weaves through the plot, not all attributable to crime by any means. To those characters lucky enough to survive, death brings change and sometimes renewal.


All this weaving and bobbing makes the novel a little fragmented in places, as you're trying to follow several plot lines at once (this may be improved by reading the series from the beginning!). Once you see the unifying element of death, it's much easier to perceive everything falling into place. With short, punchy chapters, this novel reads briskly and easily, so I'm putting it in both the "beach read" and "good" categories. If you like your crime with a British flavor, check this one out of the library, but if your idea of good reading is P.D. James, you might find it a little lightweight.

[Holly Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just read Susan Hill's second and third mysteries, The Pure in Heart and The Risk of Darkness, back-to-back, and I'm so glad I did, because the stories continue almost seamlessly. A warning to readers looking for cozy mysteries: these are darker than most, and they don't have the tidy Hollywood endings we've come to expect. Many of your favorite characters will meet bad ends, you'll find yourself feeling a bit sorry for the well-rounded (but no less creepy) villains, and all of the secondary characters will leap off the page and demand your attention. Love affairs—usually the staple secondary plot narrative of mysteries in this genre—never go in the direction you expect, and there are broken hearts littering the pavement and gloomy hills along with the corpses. In fact, at times these novels read more like dark domestic fiction, the sorts of family dramas where people have to fight through difficult times in their marriages and make tough decisions about parenting and betrayals. This isn't a bad thing at all. In fact, I think this quality, along with her lush imagery and almost poetic sense of setting-as-character, helps put Susan Hill leagues ahead of her contemporary mystery colleagues.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great crime novel featuring Simon Serrailler and his team. I read a lot of crime series and this one is different for a couple of reasons: firstly, the books are very character-driven, not just the police officers themselves but also the victims and even the perpetrators, whose emotions and thoughts are very much at the forefront of the narrative; secondly, the books are rarely about the solving of one particular crime but rather involve several investigations on which the team may be working at the time, which is probably far more reflective of what really goes on in a working CID. I really enjoyed this one and quickly got back into the work of Serrailler's team, even though it's been nearly 2 years since I read the last one - remembering, for example, the unsolved child abduction cases which they were investigating, which carry on in this novel. Won't be leaving it as long before I read number 4!
9/10.

[Jaksen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another very smart, well-executed Simon Serrailler mystery, however....

This book is somewhat of a departure from the first two books in that it is involved with more of the 'subplots' rather than the main gist of the story, the abduction of a child. (The abduction part of the novel is resolved rather speedily, though certain elements drag on throughout the story.) What we've really got here are three situations, personal conundrums if you will, involving...

Simon, and his inability to forge a worthwhile relationship with a woman. Yep, he gets taken up short more than once here.

Simon's sister and her husband, dealing with the pressures of both being doctors, what with the long hours, constant bureaucratic red tape, etc.. Both are questioning their life choices, the effect on their marriage and family life and need to decide if they want to stay in the profession.

And then there's a beautiful, red-headed, female priest who's questioning her life decisions, too.

Put on top of all of this two other factors:

The child abduction - and the mighty nasty 'piece of work' responsible for them; as well as a tormented man named Max who's watching his wife die from mad cow disease.

These situations all are complicated by interactions between the various characters, and their situations, and the child abduction which soon becomes plural, abductions.

Hence, not a standard mystery, but a good read nonetheless; also a book which moves Simon along in his character development, etc.

Three stars.

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

My journey with this book was like this:

First 60% bored
Next 20% totally engrossed
Last 10% thinking they better hurry if they're going to wrap things up satisfyingly
Finished: not satisfied.

How lame! No Jane; no sister for the next six months; no mother; no sidekick; a promotion cliffhanger, and I did not like how either case was handled.

The BCB doesn't tell you this, but there are actually two cases in this one. The first involves a husband whose wife has been in decline for some time. When she takes a nasty spill down the stairs, it's only a brief stay in hospice before she dies. The poor man was barely hanging on before, but now he completely loses his mind. He keeps thinking other women are his wife (like she was before she became ill), and each time he thinks he sees her, he becomes increasingly violent.

The second plot was much better. Children are going missing, and the police are desperate to catch the kidnapper and hopefully find at least one of the kids alive. When the police finally catch the suspect red-handed, it isn't anyone they would've expected at all...

The kidnapping case was by far my favorite of the two. After they had the suspect in custody, I kept thinking some instigating factor was going to be revealed. It wasn't. In fact, the whole book was kind of a letdown because nothing turned out for DI Simon, really. In real life we never get all the answers, but that why I reeeeeeaad, so I can have those things!!

*sigh* Let's see how things turn out for Simon in the next book, The Vows of Silence.

[Katharine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was such a disappointing book. Who did it? We find out near the beginning, without really doing any detecting. Why? Who knows? Such wickedness is apparently beyond human understanding. So what filled up 3/4 of the book? Just a soap opera of the so-called detective, who seems to have no real understanding of human motivations, and his sister, who finally decides to spend 6 months in Australia. Oh, and the love interest (not) who decides to go live in a convent. What has happened to the traditional English village mystery where we get to find out everyone's secrets and hidden connections? Please, bring it back!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, I know this sounds mushy, but I've fallen in love with this series. So much, in fact, that I'm scared for all my other series, as Susan's approach is so fresh, so structurally singular, I feel I've fallen for an alien. And there aren't that many about!

When I think back to that first book, it all makes sense why I felt so lost, so alone. To know what I mean, you'll have to read them 😀

5 ⭐️

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely getting addicted to this series. The character development is the best part. The characters in the town show up in later books unless they are killed off
Read in audio

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Risk of Darkness is the 3rd in a series of atypical crime novels featuring the detective Simon Serrailler. I have very much enjoyed the series so far and I will be putting book no. 4 on my reserve list soon. However, I would offer some cautions to a fan of straightforward who-dunnits and police procedurals about Susan Hill's style.

Crimes are not neatly solved in this series. The police are not Sherlock Holmsian in their perceptions and abilities. Loose ends are left hanging. Questions are left unanswered. Frustration can build in the reader, as it does in the protagonists, as motivations are sought but not always identified. Killers are pursued but not always caught by the end of the last page.

I believe it is very important to begin this series at book number one (The Various Haunts of Man) and move on in chronological sequence. Characters are introduced at various times and their actions build into the next story. The murderer, identified early in this book, for instance, was still running amok at the end of the last one...leaving a disturbing lack of closure to the families of the victims.

In Serrailler, Hill has developed a lead player who is a realistic and flawed persona. As in her plots, all is not neat and clean with her leading man. Although Serrailler can be an attractive character in some ways, he is also arrogant and self absorbed and a bit of a playa with the women he encounters.

I enjoy ambiguity and uncertainty and the sloppiness of reality in fiction if it is done well enough. I found this particular installment to be less compelling than the first two books in the series. But I did not consider it to be a 'bad' book. I believe it pushed the boundaries of my acceptance for grey areas. Sometimes there is just no neat explanation available for why a person becomes a killer. The police blotters in cities across the world do not read like Perry Mason.

The Risk of Darkness will not scare you (unless you pause to consider how terrifying the unidentified urge to take lives can be.) It will not answer your driving question when you read the last chapter. This can be a real problem in a mystery series and there will be readers who will say 'What was the point of that?"

And I believe the point is that reality is more frightening than the darkest horror story. Police do not have super powers of detection and clairvoyance. A good police will try as hard as possible, stay focused, put away some bad guys and try not to let the job kill them.

The story here revolves around an abductor and killer of children who defies any profiling category. Serrailler continues in his conflicted relationship with his family (a sister he is close to, her family, and his aging parents...all of whom we have met in the first two books.)

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

After The Various Haunts of Men and The Pure in Heart, this is the darkest of the series in chronological order. This picks up immediately after the end of the second book and starts with the capture of the child abductor. The sub-plots involve a man going mad from grief after the death of his wife, and the introduction of a female rector to Lafferton, as well as the continuation of the stories of the Serrailler family.

As other reviewers have said, this is mis-represented by the publishers as a crime novel; rather, it is a novel in which a crime does take place but it is certainly not a mystery or police procedural book: it is a contemporary slice-of-life set in a middle-England cathedral town.

I found this book (appropriately to the title) very dark and quite bleak and painful. The portrait of Max, especially, is acutely done but is also so traumatic that I would have trouble re-reading it. Simon himself becomes more central than in some of the earlier books and we witness his relationship with Diana first-hand, as well as getting more insight into the his relationships with other women.

Overall this is a dark and quite disturbing book that focuses almost pessimistically on the shadows of life and more than one characters is involved in thinking about the nature of human evil. This is a fine series overall but you may, like me, feel the need to read something much lighter and more optimistic after finishing this.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third book in the Simon Serralier series picks up right where the second, The Pure in Heart, ended. It would definitely be best to read this series in order, because a lot of the loose ends from the previous book are sorted out here. However, the kidnapping story started in the second book still leaves a few loose ends even by the end of this one, so I hope that more of the story continues in the fourth book.

This is definitely an enjoyable series, but one that requires a bit of patience from its readers. The entire town is really brought to life, giving the setting a very special significance and realism that many other series do not have. The book ends with a lot of change seeming to be on the horizon, so I am quite interested to see where the series goes!

[Melanie O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was stuck at the back of the shoe cupboard, found whilst having a lockdown tidy! I was going to charity bag it and not bother reading it but changed my mind... I’m glad I did! It’s a really good mystery detective book. Interesting characters and storyline... never a dull moment in fact, going to pass on to my friend now .. I know she’ll like it too! Would recommend.

[Suzanne Kentish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The missing boy hunt from the last book is finally solved with a pacy storyline at the start of the book before you head into new characters and mysteries. Still enjoying the series and I would be lying if I said I wasn't wanting to read the next just to see what happens!

[Sabrina Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arrrgggh... I love/hate this series. So oddly addicting. It's like a gritty soap opera. I can't stop reading them, because I want to see what happens to the characters. SPOILER: They will probably all die.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this one. The first book in the Simon Serrailler series was fantastic. It has a gripping plot, interesting protagonist, excellent character development, and a lovely English village for it all to percolate in. The second book in the series was also very good. This one; not so much. The synopsis of this book states that it's "filled with action and adventure". I would restate that as "filled with random craziness and and chock full of characters that I don't give a flip about".

Hill is a competent writer. She describes a scene in such a way that it manages to grab the reader and involve them, but then you realize that the events that she's describing aren't very believable, and add nothing to the story other than confusion and fogginess.

A good example without giving away anything of the story (as if you would even care) is this: Simon Serrailler has been described in the first 2 books as something of a ladies' man. He breaks hearts. His blonde hair and blue eyes are catnip to the female sex. I'm picturing a Daniel Craig type. In this book, he's suddenly mistakenly assumed to be gay by a fellow female police officer. I certainly have nothing against gay characters, and would welcome a gay protagonist, but the way in which Hill does this is incongruent with her previous descriptions of the main character of the series. Now I go from feeling like I know this character to being confused about who he is and what he's doing.

Ultimately, it's English crime that's enjoyable and passes the time. I've always wanted to go to England; reading a series like this allows me to daydream about it. But it's disappointing; I know how good the first book was, and I know how much better this one could have been.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, rounded up because I was intrigued by the central mystery (but warning: it is not neatly resolved!)

A well written police procedural that is more slice-of-life than traditional mystery, with a compelling central narrative but perhaps one subplot too many either the new-guy-who-is-a-jerk or the attacks on the mother of the priest could have been let go, and most certainly the attack on Serailler AND the woman priest at the all-night diner was an unnecessary distraction and one that was simply unbelievable the extraordinary, psychotic, homicidal response to his wife's death by the bereaved husband.

The various fractured mother-child relationships were an interesting, not overly-intrusive thread and the short chapters kept me turning the pages without resorting to manipulative cliff-hangers.

OTOH, at this point in the series, I have no patience whatsoever for Serailler's stunted emotional life and adolescent "I just met you! I love you!" response to the Unavailable Woman. But Hill's writing, and Serailler's sister Cat, will bring me back for the next installment.

[Peacejanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third of the Simon Serrailler mysteries. It is not a stand-alone book. Hill builds on her previous Simon books. As usual, there is a crime -- small children go missing and are never heard from again. No one has ever found the remains. How can smart little children get into a car with a killer? They are trained not to do so! Yet, the children keep disappearing. And, as usual, there are multiple family problems, Simon's casual girlfriend does not want to be casual anymore,
a new woman "almost" comes into Simon's life and now his right hand man is going to leave for a better position.
Hill is wonderful at creating page-turners. You can not put them down once you start. She creates wonderful complex characters and relationships and there is always the overcast shadow of crime. These are no ordinary crime stories; they are too human.
Hill is a wonderful writer and a great mystery writer. Start with the first book The Various Haunts of Men.

[Patricia Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third in a wonderful new British series. The detective, Simon Serrailler, is a wonderful character and his family are too - he's a triplet; his sister and her husband are doctors, as were his parents so he is the family rebel. The other triplet, Ivo, lives in Australia and looks to figure in the next book. The plots and crimes are interesting and well done but the characters are what drive this series for me. Serrailler is also an artist; he draws and exhibits and sells his work under another name, keeping that side of his life separate from his detective work. I highly recommend this series; start at the beginning - The Various Haunts of Men is the first if I remember correctly.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hot on the heels of reading the second Simon Serrailler book, I've now finished the third. This one carries on immediately from the 2nd and ties up some of the outstanding plots. Susan Hill is good at depicting the banality of crime and subverts some of the usual crime novel tropes. She also ensures that although the character of Simon Serrailler is very much the 'romantic loner' he can also be a bit of a conceited sh1t...It appears to me after reading two of the series in short succession that Hill is more interested in character than plot - unusual for crime novels - but the enjoyment factor is still high (I wonder if Serrailler will ever be brought to our TV screens?)

[Richard Gillin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d left this an ununusually long time to start, having read the second Simon Serallier novel a good nine months ago now - and that one leaving a lot of ends to tie up. This book runs with those both beautifully and painfully - keenly described characters and their human condition mean the former; the latter the stark subject matter of vanishing children. More ends are tied up in this book - but still a few remain to tease you on to the fourth. For those wanting a challenging detective series with a side helping of NHS and ecclesiastical background, highly recommended - as is for those just wanting the twists and turns of a gripping yarn.

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third installment carries on from the second book with Serrailler still hunting for a child killer. The series also introduces characters whose part in the story is at first unclear.
The books don't come from the pov of Serrailler, there is his sister Cat, his father and mother. There's also the sense that no one is safe with Hill not afraid to kill off a well liked character.
Enjoying this series a great deal, just wish Lafferton existed.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.