No. 2 in the Simon Serrailler series. Just as good as the first one. Hill continues to defy convention with her characters and situations, and I love the community of Lafferton as some love Three Pines (where I never settled in.)
Read in 2014 ( )

The central mystery is the kidnapping of a schoolboy. The main story seems to be about the personal troubles of Simon Serrailer in his relations with family and former girlfriend. Good portrayal of police procedures.

This is the second book in the series and follows Simon after several losses and the kidnapping of a 9 year old boy. I listened to the audio book and the narration was fantastic. ( )

The second Simon Serrailler mystery, with the focus rather more squarely on Serrailler as the main protagonist (but with a number of other excellent characters as well). Another good mystery, this one also got me excited to read the next in the series. ( )

This, like its predecessor in the series, is a genuine crossover literature, examples of which are all too rare. The police procedural aspect of the plot is convincing but the real focus is on the impact of the crime (and, more generally, of untimely death) on all involved. As a result a wider range of characters is examined more deeply than one would expect from a standard police procedural. This more than makes up for Hill's refusal to deliver the standard neat resolution of the plot. Although Hill's characters are examined closely at times, I find the depiction uneven in depth and not always seamlessly embedded in the narrative, leaving me slightly distanced at times. None the less a compelling read. 26 March 2018 ( )