Biography (part 2)". susan-hill.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2008 . Retrieved 10 March 2013. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL ( link) And then there's the man known as Fats. Preying on young children to run errands for him. Burner phones with instructions messaged through. Bribes followed by threats. Iris is a bereaved elderly lady who is the next to disappear. She was seeking comfort in spiritual meetings before disappeared.

This is the latest in Susan Hill's series featuring DCS Simon Serrailler of Lafferton Police, a blend of family drama and crime fiction, an addition which has Serrailler wondering if the time has come to make different life choices, including whether he should move to the country after his comfortable life renting a flat. Professionally, he finds himself having to confront the nightmare rise and spread of the county lines drugs trade, a threat to young people, the exploitation of children, with all the attendant threats it poses to the community. It is winter, it all begins with the discovery in the village of Starly of the ravaged body of a young man in a flat above a Chinese herbal pharmacy, a heroin overdose, and which sparks police inquiries as they try to identify the victim.

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The following description made me laugh out loud, "He was bald, having shaved his head so often the hair had eventually abandoned hope." Simon Serrailler remains a mystery to me. I see facets of his personality, but not the underlying events that formed him. I like him based on what I’ve read so far and I really want to know more. Two books into the series and I feel I know his family, but there are things that are still hidden, secrets being kept. Debbie is a 20 year old girl suffering from depression, overweight and acne. She began feeling better after visiting a spiritual leader named Dava and had started taking morning walks on The Hill. She also disappears from the same location one morning while jogging. In this newest installment of Susan Hill’s electrifying crime series, Simon Serrailler finds himself in devastating new territory as a sophisticated drug network sets its sights on Lafferton

On yet another unrelated note (everything in this book was unrelated) a rich 56 year old moves to town with his sexy 22 year old wife, buys a stately house, gives a million pounds to Simon's mom's charity to fund a respite day care for those caring for the elderly and the wife wants Karin to help her with her gardens. Uh huh. I have loved this series since the first one -The Various Haunts of Men- and as we’re now at number eleven the characters feel as comfortable as old slippers and like friends in their familiarity. Simon is so intriguing and continues to do so which takes some skill to maintain in a succession of books. He’s a terrific policeman, a good leader, he cares very deeply about his family and is a great uncle to Cat’s children but he’s very complex and currently extremely restless and at a crossroads in his life. I like the on/off relationship with Rachel Wyatt which adds to the realism. Cat and her family always add a good personal touch and she offers Simon the stability and family he needs. Cat’s role in the books has grown over the years and I do enjoy that. This wasn’t a crime story, it was a domestic, kitchen-sink tale where the main character just happened to be a police officer – I wouldn’t even call it a drama it was so plodding (no pun intended). The case that was taking up Simon’s working hours this time was so unoriginal that I think it’s already been done by every one of the TV soaps. The only puzzle was whether Simon would make his mind up about the domestic affairs which seemed to be occupying his mind for far more time than finding any villains. This is certainly not a light, crime read. Ultimately, it's not much fun to read. But the prose is genre-like and you can virtually skim it.This novel centres around the drugs industry as it starts to get its claws into Lafferton. I enjoyed the storyline as it felt like a bit of a different plot, though there were some parts of the book which felt like they went off on a bit of a tangent and were harder to feel absorbed in.

Working in and around Lafferton, Serrailler works to get to the bottom of the case in these intricate and intelligent mystery stories. There is also talk of a television adaptation in what could potentially become a long-running series to rival that of previous popular shows such as Inspector Morse. This all builds towards Simon Serrailler becoming one of the best known fictional detectives, in a franchise that has plenty of life left in it yet. Simon Serrailler: The Various Haunts of Men The police struggle with the crime, since there were apparently no witnesses, and the crime itself devastates the Angus family, as much as it frightens the Lafferton residents, especially coming so soon on the heels of the serial killings in the first book. Having recently listened to a number of Inspector Dalgliesh stories, the similarities are notable: they’re both beautifully (if wordily) written and both rather smug - yet they’re languorous and well-plotted with great narrators. Disclaimer: If this book ever gets published, (during my lifetime) I will happily read it and retract this 'review' for a real one.Just as in real life, there's not a lot of happy endings contained within. In fact, it makes for some pretty grim reading, alleviated only by the close Serrailler family relationships. But the ending gives me hope and I look forward to seeing how things develop in book #12, The Sound of Footsteps, due to be publisher later in 2023. Hill revisits old characters from her previous outing, The Betrayal of Trust, but briefly. Jocelyn Forbes, the woman living with motor neurone disease, or MND, is still alive, but barely, and Hill seems to have a keen interest in MND and its debilitating affects on a person's body. Also, Rachel Wyatt and Simon Serrailler's rendezvous continues in the latest mystery, and though the relationship adds nothing to the meat of the main story, Hill creates interesting characters that her readers care about and hope to revisit in future stories. On a totally unrelated topic, Karin, from the first book, somehow is cured of raging, spreading, severe cancer just by eating healthy, doing some visualizations, and other alternative things. Right. Like that would do it. I have seen a lot of people die that way and seen others get cured with the usual treatment that we know can work. This is a dangerous message to send out to people and irresponsible. There is a moment in this book where really not much is happening, but an old lady is alone in her home with an electrician. Suddenly the electrician says "Gotcha!" and I nearly jumped out of my skin. At that point, I broke down, demanded my husband's undivided attention (no small request as he is currently reading the George RR Martin series), and just started telling him all about what was going on in this book. How Hill sets up this evil character then sends him underground with a new identity, how she then moves the action to Lafferton where the snow won't stop falling and small family dramas drive the action, how she introduces you to these older women who are moving to a new housing development -- their lives full of excitement and possiblity, and how you are so tense because you know these women's days are numbered.