The Vows of Silence: A Simon Serrailler MYstery [Hardcover]

Susan Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2009

Another wrenching Simon Serrailler novel of love, loss, dreadful crimes, and terror.

We met the enigmatic and brooding Simon Serrailler in The Various Haunts of Men and got to know him better in The Pure in Heart and The Risk of Darkness. The Vows of Silence, the fourth crime novel featuring Chief Inspector Serrailler, is perhaps even more compulsive and convincing than its predecessors.

A gunman is terrorizing young women in the cathedral town of Laffterton. What, if anything, links the apparently random murders? Is the marksman with the rifle the same as the killer with the handgun? With the complexity and character study that earned raves for The Pure in Heart and the relentless pacing and plot twists of The Various Haunts of Men, The Vows of Silence is truly the work of a writer at the top of her form.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Hill's unremarkable fourth novel to feature Chief Insp. Simon Serrailler (after 2008's The Risk of Darkness), Serrailler and his team race against time to stop a killer who's gunning down young women, apparently at random. Newlywed Melanie Drew is the first victim, shot at close range inside her flat in Lafferton. The killer shifts method for his second attack, using a rifle to shoot into a crowd outside a nightclub. Next, he uses a handgun to murder a young mother in front of her toddler. The variety of approaches leads the police to consider whether two different killers are at work, even as Serrailler's sergeant finds the visits of Drew's widowed husband to the scenes of the subsequent crimes suspicious. Hill does a decent job of generating suspense with sections from the murderer's point of view, but many readers will lament the lack of fair-play clues to his identity. Hill is also the author of the acclaimed horror novel The Woman in Black. (Nov.)
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Review

Praise for Susan Hill:

"It''s the intelligence of this brooding series that rivets a reader''s attention."-Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

"Susan Hill''s crime novels are getting better and better, an unexpected but entirely convincing ending."-The Spectator

"This is a crime series that specialises in sidestepping conventions, always to exhilarating effect...These books succeed in harnessing all the genre''s addictive power while maintaining a complexity and fascination entirely their own."-The Independent

"Hill knows how to keep those pages turning."-Chicago Sun-Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; First Edition edition (October 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590202457
• ISBN-13: 978-1590202456
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super police procedural, October 31, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vows of Silence: A Simon Serrailler MYstery (Hardcover)

In Lafferton, a culprit uses a handgun to kill newlywed Melanie Drew in her apartment. Soon after that a sniper uses a rifle to shoot into a crowd standing outside a nightclub. Next a gun is fired killing a mother standing with her infant. The seemingly random killings have the townsfolk frightened and panicked.

Lafferton Police Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler and his unit see no ties beyond the age and sex of the victims. The three homicides is made even more complicated by the use of two weapons. Simon wonders if two killers are stalking the streets yet keeps going back to the concept of a psychopathic serial killer. As he struggles with preventing the next murder, his sister Cat has health issues and his nephew is known for creative cheating at Scrabble.

The police procedural subplot is well written, filled with suspense and has a red herring suspect, but the emotional intensity happens more to people in Simon's personal circle as he is the "watcher" even with Jane Fitzroy, a woman he is attracted to. The story line is fast-paced except with the relationship dance between Simon and Jane. Susan Hill effortlessly moves back and forth between the case (to include the killer's perspective) and Simon's personal life. British police procedural fans will enjoy Simon's not simple investigation and look for his previous caseload (THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN, THE PURE IN HEART and THE RISK OF DARKNESS).

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good But Not The Best In Hill's Simon Serrailler Series, April 10, 2010

By 

Susan K. Schoonover "Sue Yingling" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Vows of Silence: A Simon Serrailler MYstery (Hardcover)

THE VOWS OF SILENCE is the fourth volume in Susan Hill's well rendered series featuring Detective Simon Serrailer, members of his family and the fictional British cathedral town of Lafferton. Though this book is literate and worth reading like its predecessors it is the weakest volume so far published in the series. The main mystery in the novel is the identity of a gunman who is randomly shooting women all of whom seem to be recently involved in weddings. Several red herring suspects are presented and when the killer is actually revealed we have met him but I at least did not suspect him. Readers of the series are accustomed to Simon's family and their personal issues having a major subplot in each outing and this time it is a particularly tragic illness they are coping with.

The rest of the novel is quite busy and there are way too many supporting characters both introduced just for THE VOWS OF SILENCE and brought back from the previous three books. Even Prince Charles and Lady Camilla are on the periphery of the plot. Death and marriage are major themes throughout and though Hill's writing is clear and thoughtful the tone of the book is almost too grim to be enjoyable. If you enjoy this series this addition is worth reading and I hope the fifth volume that has all ready been published in Britain is up to the standards of the first three. By all means if this series appeals to you read the books in order of publication to get the most from them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ready for the next book, January 11, 2010

By 

mdmom "mdmom" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vows of Silence: A Simon Serrailler MYstery (Hardcover)

The plot is already given in the first review and provided by Amazon, so I won't repeat it. This is another wonderful book in the series about Simon Serrailler, his family and co-workers. I had to read it all in one sitting, so I would know how the various situations were resolved--or not. I definitely recommend it if you liked the preceding books. It won't disappoint you except that we have to wait for the next book!