📖 Book Review~ The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill

 

Vintage
2015

Simon Serrailler #8

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book 

The cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place. As part of the same rapidly changing world, it shares the same hopes and fears, and the same kinds of crime, as any number of towns up and down the land.

When one day DC Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton’s new Chief Constable, Kieron Bright, he is met by four plainclothes officers. He is asked to take the lead role in a complex, potentially dangerous undercover operation and must leave town immediately, without telling anyone – not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him.

Meanwhile, Simon’s sister Cat is facing difficult choices at work that will test her dedication to the NHS. But an urgent call about her and Simon’s father, Richard, soon presents her with a far greater challenge much closer to home.

To complete his special op, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. As the op unfolds, Lafferton is dragged into the sort of case every town dreads. And Simon faces the fight of his life.

📖My Review..

When DC Simon Serrailler is approached by a group of plain clothes officers and asked to take part in an undercover operation to infiltrate a paedophile gang, Serrailler fears that this will be his most challenging case yet, however, he is determined to bring to justice the perpetrators of some truly heinous crimes. With his undercover persona established Serrailler enters into the minds of these deadly criminals whilst at the same time cutting off all contacts with his family thus placing his life in grave danger. With Serrailler away from the family it leaves his sister Cat to deal with some difficult family challenges both in her personal and professional life.

The Soul of Discretion is the eighth book in the Simon Serrailler series and whilst the books may be read out of order, as I have done, it is better to start at the beginning in order to appreciate the character progression. I’m beginning to get to know Simon Serrailler well and enjoy observing how this enigmatic detective sets out to rid the streets of his home town of Lafferton of criminals. Whilst each story is undoubtedly a well plotted crime novel, it is never gratuitously violent and I enjoy how much is explained without too much gory detail.  I also enjoy spending time with the Serrailler family and in this novel we get to learn a little more about Simon’s father whose difficult personality is so often at the root of family problems.

Of all the Serrailler novels I have read to date I think  that The Soul of Discretion has been my favourite and as the story ends with a rather dramatic cliffhanger I look forward to seeing what happens next in book number nine.

🍺Best read with…a glass of strong beer

About the Author

SUSAN HILL has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I'm the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and The Mist in the Mirror. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black is one of the longest running in the history of London's West End. In 2020 she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for services to literature. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

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