Customer Reviews

The Shadows in the Street

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

I enjoy Susan Hill as a writer so much, even though I've only read three of her books so far! Fortunately she has an extensive backlist that will keep me busy for a long time. This latest Simon Serrailler novel continues on very much with the private lives of the Serrailler family, namely his sister and her children and his father and his new wife. They dynamics of Simon's private life takes up a good amount of space in these novels. The book also starts out by introducing all the characters and having them going about their daily lives that one becomes wrapped up in the story and is well into the book before a murder even happens.

Prostitutes are being strangled and found in the river of the Chapel town that Simon and his family live in. They have two strong suspects but neither can be proved nor do they really seem to fit as the unsub. Trying to work an angle involving an unsub who has some psychological reason for going after prostitutes is thrown for a loop when the resident Dean (Reverend)'s wife goes missing, then next a married a mom with two children. A case that has Simon and his teams going nowhere fast as every clue ends up back where they started.

I enjoy these mysteries tremendously. The characterization is wonderful. All players are fully fleshed out with backstories and personalities. The mystery is intelligent and clever. I had my eye on the culprit but can't really say I solved this one as I also had my eye on a few others! I read the book quickly over the weekend; it was one of those can't put it down 'til I'm finished books. The type of mystery found here is best described as a psychological suspense. The pace of the writing keeps in tempo with the pace of the case, at times slow as we bang our heads on desks trying to make sense of it all and then boom! we're off on another lead or another body has been found. Another great entry to the series. Recommended.

"The Shadows in the Street," the latest addition to Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler mystery series, showcases the author's amazing ability to balance the elements of both plot and character without sacrificing one for the other. Hill allows her characters to simmer and become full-bodied persons who walk off the page and into the reader's mind where their stories intersect and blend to reach a very satisfying conclusion.

In "Shadows" the cathedral town of Lafferton is a cauldron of old and new. Simon still occupies his apartment in the Close near the cathedral but when the story opens he is on holiday off the Scottish coast. His twin sister, Cat Deerborn, a physician, is still seeing patients but is struggling to adjust to life without her husband, Chris, who died a year earlier of a brain tumor. Their father, who remarried after their mother's death, still disapproves of his son's two professions, artist and detective with the Lafferton Police Department. However, Cat and her stepmother have become quite close, and Cat relies on her to help with the three children. But the cathedral has a new Dean who, together with his wife and long-time friend and assistant, have upset the congregation with aggressive plans for changing the way the church conducts its services and community outreach. The Lafferton Police Department also has a new member who wants to work with Simon and learn his methods. And then there's Chantelle, the newest member of Lafferton's group of girls who work in the oldest profession, plying their trade along the tow path by the canal. When Chantelle is murdered, the hunt for her killer begins, and the plot begins to thicken.

Hill builds her characters' stories in targeted short bursts that reveal their strengths and shortcomings along with their hopes and heartaches. Short chapters move the focus rapidly from character to character and scene to scene, which keeps the narrative fast and fresh. Hill never judges her characters but manages to grant them all some measure of respect and dignity despite their failings. This sensitive treatment builds a foundation of trust between the author and her audience. She then leaves us to our own judgment of the murderer.

"The Shadows in the Street" if the fifth entry in the Simon Serrailler series after "The Various Haunts of Men", "The Pure in Heart", "The Risk of Darkness", and "The Vows of Silence."

I so wanted to write a good review of this book, if for no other reason than this: in the past year I've written negative reviews of nearly every one of my favorite mystery authors - Paretsky, Silva, George, King (KING! _twice_) and Maron. (And I am so so SO grateful for Deborah Crombie and Donna Leon, the ever-excellent.)

I came upon Susan Hill's series when there were three books out in the US and I loved them so much that I ordered the 4th from the UK, as I did this book, the 5th installment. Hill's characters are richly drawn, complex and quirky and intellectually engaged and engaging. She's a brave writer, giving us a world full of people who are closely (if sometimes oddly) involved in each other's lives. She shows us long and emotionally intricate relationships into which she doesn't hesitate to insert the awful reality of death. She kills off major characters, something most writers shrink from.

And the on-going characters continue to evolve impressively. The main plot of this novel is solid, if uninspired. But even I - and I'm a reader who never figures out either whodunit or who's-next - even I could see what was coming. Here is victim A. There is victim B. Here's the one who's got so much ink that we know she will survive. Here's the killer: here. But no, it's not a book where you are supposed to see the killer's identity, as there are many syntactical circumlocutions meant to conceal.

So that's very bad. But there's worse. The secondary plot seems to have escaped from a Susan Howatch "Starbridge" novel. For those of you who haven't dated Episcopal priests and been forced to read that series, Howatch is a romance writer who tried to go legit by penning a flock of books about the Church of England. What emerges is a soap opera in a cathedral close (Salisbury renamed Starbridge) with diocesan in-jokes and infighting to attract the Altar Guild crowd and lots of depressed drunks and spiritual angst amid world-class architecture. Gruesome. And Hill seems to have been infected by this virus.

The cathedral, its music, its place as anchor in the geographical and spiritual lives of the main characters has been a compelling part of the Serraillier series. But this time there's a hunk of the plot tied to the new Dean and his wacked-out wife and it's pure soap. I couldn't believe it.

Still, it's a wonderful series and everyone is entitled to a bad book. So if you haven't read the first four Serrailler novels, you have a great treat in store. And then check this one out of the library to keep up with Simon and Cat and Judith and the kids and hope for better things next year.

Though this series is set in the English cathedral town of Lafferton, this title begins on the remote Scottish island of Taransay, where DCS Simon Serrailler is taking a leave of absence following a difficult case. Near the end of his stay, he gets the call to return to return to Lafferton to head up the investigation of the murder of a local prostitute. Soon it becomes an apparent serial killer case, with the killer moving from prostitutes to other local women.

The terror among the local prostitutes is brought home to the reader by the stories of three of them: Abi, Hayley and Marie. Hill paints a vivid picture of the lives of these women and the risks they take to make a living for themselves and their children. She shows us the sometimes antagonistic and sometimes more helpful relationships between women like this and the police, government agencies, do-gooders and the medical establishment. She focuses in closely on one do-gooder (or is he?), Les, a local academic librarian who comes out at night to bring the women food and talk with them.

Susan Hill's books in this series can only loosely be called police procedurals. The focus of each book is at least as much on the lives of Serrailler's family and his and their friends and colleagues as it is on the case at hand. Often, and certainly in this case, the police procedural aspects of the book don't lead much of anywhere.

Simon's sister, Cat Deerbon, is slowly rebuilding her life after a tragedy that occurred in the previous book. She is caught up in the escalating strife in the church because of the arrival of a new Dean, Stephen Webber, and his wife, Ruth. The Webbers want to cast off many of the traditions that Cat and her fellow parishioners love, and Ruth is arrogant and pushy. Cat also becomes involved in the problems of local prostitutes through Abi, who is a patient, and through a group that Ruth has to set up to aid the women.

We are also introduced to a couple of newer members of Serrailler's team: DS Ben Vanek and DC Steph Mead. Simon's father, Richard, and his new wife Judith are also a part of the story, as they are an increasingly important part of the lives of Cat and her family, and Judith and Simon tentatively form a bond.

There is a lot going on in this book, what with the stories of all of these people, each of the murder victims and a couple of suspects. Some characters, like Ben Vanek and Steph Mead, get short shrift, while many other characters, who presumably will be part of this book only, rather than the series, are far more fully fleshed out.

The point of a book review is to let readers know whether they will enjoy the book. That's difficult with the books in this series; perhaps more so as the series goes on. I have become attached to Cat Deerbon and, to a lesser extent, to Simon Serrailler, so I continue to read the books. But I am increasingly wondering why they are called "Simon Serrailler crime novel[s]," when there usually isn't much of Simon in them and when they can only be called crime novels at a stretch. I would like to know more about Simon, but Hill seems to want to give us just the tiniest glimpses of his character. Her depiction of Simon's physician father, Richard, is of someone who is a jerk to Simon 98% of the time. It just becomes tiresome to read about Richard.

I am also rolling my eyes at yet another serial killer plot set in Lafferton. By now, surely the entire population would have fled the town, considering that it appears to be a magnet for psycho killers. I thought it was easy to spot the killer early in the book, and the moment of revelation in the story was annoyingly similar to an incident in a previous book.

There are some significant drawbacks to this series, but Hill is a good writer and brings you into the world she creates. Ultimately, I would have to say that if you think you would enjoy reading about that world more so than reading a more typical police procedural, then you would enjoy this series. But if you prefer the police procedural story to predominate, these books are not for you.

Compared to other books in this series, I don't think this entry comes off very well. There are too many stories going on to allow the stories of the regular characters the time I would like to have had. The return of a serial killer theme and the weakness of the police procedural aspects of the plot were also disappointing. I'm sure I'll read the next book in the series, but I will borrow it from the library rather than buy it.

This book is one of a series and I plan to get the whole series eventually. The author keeps to the characters and the story. It is a bit confusing as the chapter's action doesn't always follow one after the other but generally one can follow along. I bought this through Amazon hardcover as I wanted to give my Kindle a rest for a while

THE SHADOWS ON THE STREET is the fifth volume in Susan Hill's intelligent police procedural series featuring Simon Serrailler. This is a series that really is best enjoyed if read in chronological order. As in the previous books Serrailler's private life and that of his family is of as much interest as the criminal investigation he is professionally solving.

In this outing prostitutes are being murdered in the fictional British cathedral city of Lafferton the primary location of all the Serrailler books. Serrailler's sister Cat a recently widowed physician and active cathedral participant is a member of a committee formed to help these unfortunate girls. Through her committee work and as medical care provider for some of those involved Cat becomes very directly involved with her brother's latest case.

SHADOWS ON THE STREET is a well written page turner like its predecessors. The book intelligently integrates modern church politics and theologies. I am taking a star off because I felt the perpetrator was relatively obvious to any experienced mystery reader. I'm also beginning to worry that Lafferton which is portrayed as a small city has so many sensational crimes!

Susan Hill's "The Shadows in the Street" is her fifth Simon Serrailler mystery. Hill continues to engage us with fresh characters and intriguing story lines. Simon does not even appear in the early chapters, since he is vacationing on a remote Scottish island, "where people did not hurry and there was little noise other than the sounds of nature." Back in Lafferton, Simon's twin sister, Dr. Cat Deerborn, is worried about her oldest child, Sam, who is upset but stubbornly uncommunicative, "an oyster, closed up tight."

The most compelling aspect of this novel is its frank depiction of young women who walk the streets trying to earn quick money. Some of them "were probably no more than twenty, thin, hollow-eyed, their legs without tights under the short strips of skirt." One of them, Abi Righton, has a small son and daughter whom she adores. She never touches drugs and, against all odds, dreams of going to college and getting a proper job. When a killer begins stalking and strangling prostitutes, Detective Chief Superintendent Serrailler and his team work tirelessly to find a clever and elusive murderer.

Hill's well-delineated characters include fifty-three year old Leslie Blade, a solitary and eccentric librarian who lives with his homebound mother; Jonty Lewis, a vicious bully and drug addict who enjoys abusing women; Ruth Webber, the bossy and obnoxious wife of the new Dean of St. Michael's cathedral; Judith, Simon and Cat's kind and gentle stepmother; and Ben Vanek, an ambitious Detective Sergeant who worships Simon. When no quick solution to the murders is forthcoming, the media and Simon's boss impatiently demand results. Soon, Simon's pleasant holiday fades to a distant memory as he directs his team to study CCTV tapes, distribute leaflets, and interview potential witnesses.

"The Shadows in the Street" is a grim tale about the ways in which people deal with bereavement, abject loneliness, and chronic mental illness. The author depicts the terrible plight of desperate single mothers who sell the only commodity that they have--themselves--in order to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. This is an engrossing police procedural in which a frustrated Simon faces the possibility that he may fail to solve an important case, Cat struggles to emerge from her year of misery, and a shadowy individual with a hidden agenda wreaks havoc on a lovely cathedral town. For maximum enjoyment, this series should be read in order, starting with "The Various Haunts of Men."

I think shadows in the street is the best in the series so far. After each of the books in this series I feel like I've lost contact with a part of my family. I miss being a part of their reality, and this book was no different. I believe Susan Hill is up there with Hanning Mankell when it comes to crime writing.

This is the first Susan Hill novel that I've read. I liked it well enough that I will look for her other titles but I was somewhat disappointed in the ending. There are a lot of good characters and I enjoyed learning about Simon Serrailler and his family. All this was well done. I realize that there is considerable back story to these characters which I haven't read but I thought Hill did a good job of getting me interested in the characters without my knowing the back stories. One of the joys, at least for me, in reading a murder mystery is in trying to figure out for myself the identity of the killer. To me a mystery novel falls into two broad categories. One category is where the reader knows only what the police know. The story revolves around the detectives as they try to unravel the clues. We get to try and work out the facts for ourselves. The other category is where a good portion of the story involves the other, non-police, characters of the story. That category may be broken into two subcategories, one where we are shown the murder and so know who the killer is (the enjoyment here is following the police as they try to figure out something we already know), and one where we don't see the murder but we know that one of these other characters is the murderer. In this sort of story we get to play detective. We have the clues that the police have but we have additional clues as well. This novel falls into that sub-category. My problem with this book is that I think that Hill spent a lot of time misleading the reader as to the identity of the killer. The actual killer was not even a suspect and we knew nothing about this person that would suggest that he was the killer. I felt a little cheated.

Susan Hill does it again. For those fans who read the last one, this one has all the hallmarks--sympathetic characters, strange local people (in this case, a new dean of St. Mark's Cathedral and his obnoxious wife), and a serial killer--in this case, local prostitutes (teenagers with babies trying to make it). Simon is not around much since he's on an island off the coast of Scotland to rest, recharge and draw. His sister Cat, now a widow for over a year, worries about her son, who has become withdrawn and silent since his father's death. Meanwhile, on the bright side, Judith Serrailler, Richard's new wife, finds her place in the family. Susan Hill manages to provoke the reader's sympathies and the characters seem very real.