Rating: 5/5
Review:
Another excellent novel from Susan Hill
This is another excellent novel in the Serrailler series. Susan Hill has created a remarkable sequence of novels, I think, which deal with important human issues - most notably people's responses to death - while bringing us exciting, engrossing stories and thoroughly believable characters.
Here the focus is less on death and dying (although Cat's work still provides a background story on the theme) than on sex crimes which involves Simon in a plot which is rather more in the thriller genre than previous books. To me it's a little weaker in structure as a result, with some rather implausible and occasionally slightly predictable plot developments as we go down the Investigator In Peril route. However, Hill writes so well and uses the device to deal with her themes and characters with such insight and thoughtfulness that it's still an excellent book. Because of its subject it can be a harrowing read at times, but it never loses its grip as a narrative and sheds clear, uncompromising and very necessary light on aspects of sex crimes (including the treatment of victims and offenders) which are too often skated over as easy, convenient plot-drivers in crime fiction.
Long-term fans will doubtless be relieved to know that, in spite of the seriousness of the book's main subject, the Serrailler/Deerbon family stories continue to develop and that Hill still finds room to battle against the loss of things like a personal relationship with a family GP, proper end-of-life care and good, independent bookshops.
In short, this is another excellent, gripping and insightful novel in a series which may genuinely deserve the adjective "great." Warmly recommended.
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