Author: Susan Hill

ISBN-13:978-1-59020-408-5

Publisher: Overlook Press

Click Here To Purchase The Shadows in the Street: A Simon Serrailler Mystery

Fifth in the popular series of Inspector Serrailler mysteries, The Shadows in the Street is a brooding study of life in a quiet English town rocked by a series of brutal murders.

Serrailler is on vacation, enjoying isolation and a casual fling on a remote Scottish island. Meanwhile, the people of Lafferton, a cathedral town in South England (and St Mary Mead to Serrailler’s Marple) reel under crises of their own. Newly widowed Cat Deerbon, Serrailler’s sister, strives to cope with the task of picking up the pieces of her life and raising three children alone. Matters are not improved by the new Dean and his domineering wife, who seem intent on uprooting every last time-honoured tradition nurtured by the congregation. Lonely librarian Leslie Blade cares for an ailing mother, endures annoying co workers, and practices a kind of philanthropy few people would understand or appreciate. Single moms Abi and Hayley earn a living as prostitutes, struggling to survive in the face of poverty, drug addiction and an increasing loss of turf to gang-organized competition. (“British jobs for British workers”, Abi quips, in one of the book’s rare moments of levity, as Russian immigrants steal away her clients.) Then two prostitutes are found brutally murdered, and Lafferton is plunged into turmoil. Serrailler returns to lead the floundering police investigation, only to be increasingly confounded by a series of dead ends.

Right from its rain drenched opening lines, Shadows... draws the reader into its bleak landscape. Hill is a master at creating atmosphere – the autumn chill hovering over the town seeps right into the story, and tightens its hold on the reader as the plot hurtles towards its climax. Set against the backdrop of a small town suffering the consequences of a changing economic and religious climate, ’Shadows..’ is also a gripping study of people besieged – emotionally, spiritually,monetarily – and their individual struggles to find release or redemption.

The narrative steps away from the usual trajectory of a mystery novel – this book will puzzle readers expecting systematic detective work, the periodic appearance of clues and the flashes of intuition that invariably reveal motive and murderers. In fact, this book isn’t even very satisfying as a mystery, with a solution that feels rushed and owes little to Serrailler’s skills. The Inspector himself remains a peripheral character in this story – instead, it is his sister Cat who commands the spotlight and helps (if unwittingly) in solving the case.

But this is a book less about a crime than its effects on the characters that people its pages; the greater mystery Hill seeks to investigate is the way it will irrevocably change their lives. With its strong writing, taut pace and finely etched characters, 'Shadows..' does just that.

Click Here To Purchase The Shadows in the Street: A Simon Serrailler Mystery