There are always going to be duds in a long running series and unfortunately this is one of them. The characters we all know and love just don't come across as 'real' in this one. Maybe it was the change of series. Maybe it was just me. Still, it's far better than a lot of crime fiction out there and you'll want to read this in order to get on to the next one.

I’ve managed to read other titles in this series. They were all very good. This one is the best so far and sets the bar even higher. The different twists and plots sustain interest and with the good pace of the book retains the reader to the end. Highly recommended.

Up to now I have always loved the Simon Seraiiler series, but sadly not this one. Not having read number 8 I didn’t have a clue as to why Simon was in hospital, so that wasn’t helpful. For me it was really hard going from the first page and I just disliked it from there on in. Cat no longer seems like the Cat of previous stories either! Some lovely descriptions of the island though. After enjoying all Ms Hill’s other tales I wish I could have added this to that list, but ultimately, it was disappointing.

Another Simon Serrailler novel by Susan Hill? I admit to excitement at this, the ninth outing for the Lafferton detective. It is three years since the eighth novel, ‘The Soul of Discretion’, and I feared Hill wanted to write about other things and there would be no more. And now, ‘The Comforts of Home’. I saved it to read on holiday, in the same way as a child I saved my favourite chocolate bar from my Christmas Selection Box. To be enjoyed at leisure.
I admit to forgetting how ‘The Soul of Discretion’ ended, so the beginning was rather a shock but also fascinating. After life-changing surgery, Serrailler goes to the remote Scottish island of Taransay to convalesce. The descriptions of this bleak but beautiful place made me want to go there. He is quickly accepted into the tight-knit community where mutual support is a necessity, where consequently everyone knows everyone else’s lives in minutiae, but where you know a death is inevitable. As temporary cop-in-charge, given the local force’s short-handedness, Serrailler uncovers a secret no one had guessed.
Serrailler’s injury beings a new layer of damage to his solitary wounded soul, he would rather get up and face the day rather than sit and talk to a counsellor. One of the secrets of this successful series is the combination of crime with the family story of Simon and his sister Cat. Cat is finding locum work unsatisfying and is looking for a new challenge. Her new marriage, to Serrailler’s boss Kieran, is happy and the only shadow on the horizon is the return from France of her irascible father Richard.
Add to this mixture a local arsonist, a mother who presses for the reopening of the investigation of her daughter’s disappearance, a convicted murderer, a rookie detective constable, and Cat’s teenage son Sam who can’t decide what he wants to do with his life, and Hill delivers her clever blend of crime, detection and domestic daily life.
Excellent. A masterclass is how to write a thriller which keeps you reading, makes you love the familiar characters, never tells you what’s happening but let’s you work it out, and poses moral dilemmas.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Susan Hill can't really write a bad work of fiction, but this was disappointing. It felt sketchy, and I had plot niggles (they wouldn't do that, it isn't like that) through the book. It felt like it was a case of 'I have to write a final chapter in the series' rather than 'I have an amazing idea for how this will end'. I'd still buy it for the library, but won't keep the book on my Kindle. Oh, well, no one is perfect....

You can’t keep a good cop down.

After his last case leaves him with life-changing injuries, Simon goes to recover to the small Scottish Island of Taransay. Not long after he arrives, he is drawn into a murder case of a woman living on the Island who is found shot to death. Nobody knows a lot about her only that she was well liked by all the Islanders.

Later, back in London his Boss and Brother–in–law asks him to investigate a cold case of a young woman missing for 5 years, everybody knows who is guilty as he is already in prison for a similar crime, however, there was no proof to link him to the girl’s disappearance. Simon soon finds the original investigation had a lot of flaws and he sets out to properly investigate the crime.

This is the first book featuring Simon Serrailler I have read but it doesn’t really matter as it was pretty much a stand-alone story and I soon got to know the characters. I really enjoyed it, Simon and the other characters are all very real and the description of the Island was superb I could picture it, the beautiful and wild land.

This is not a glamorous crime novel but a believable one, good old-fashioned investigating and no big car chases and gory details, but still manages to grip you and keep you reading.

I will try and read the other books in this series and hopefully get to review the next one.

Chester.

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

A new Simon Serrailer novel is always one to look forward to, and with such a long gap since the The Soul of Discretion (4 years, although there were some novellas inbetween), it is definitely highly anticipated. It also felt, to me, like a bit of a different offering.

For one thing, there felt like there was way less police procedural and detective work - although the plot consists of various crimes, because of the situation Simon is in, he's not right 'in the action' so to speak, so this felt very different to the rest of the series. Definitely less dramatic, but not necessarily less enjoyable.

There's a noticable absence of darkness or grit, which I did miss, but instead the story focuses on characters and their relationships to one another, and for me this made up for it. In The Comforts of Home the reader learns a lot more about various characters and for me that meant that the story was still well worth reading. I don't want to give too much away but from the synopsis it's clear that Simon is 'away' recovering and this is the main reason for the change in pace, so it all makes sense.

I don't want to give much away but I definitely still enjoyed this novel, perhaps not as much as the earlier books in the series, but still to the point that I didn't want it to end. Looknig forward to what future books in this series have to offer!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review

I first discovered the Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler series about three years ago. I was luckily enough to read the first 8 books with no breaks so Simon and the Serrailer family felt like old friends. I enjoyed the first seven books but I did not enjoy The Soul of Discretion because of the violence, also I thought it would be unlikely Simon would be asked to work undercover.

I was sad when The Soul of Discretion finished because I thought that would be the last of the series. When I found out there was to be a ninth book I could not wait to get my hands on a copy.

The story began with Simon in hospital after being badly injured during his last investigation. His arm had been badly mangled but he doctors hoped to save the arm. However they had to amputate after Simon caught an infection.

Once Simon was discharged he went to island of Taransay to recuperate. Simon rented a cottage where he got on well with the locals. Sandy Murdoch was new to the island but fitted in well and was willing to help the locals. After going missing Sandy was found shot dead by a rifle. Police Scotland did not have the man power to go to Taransay. In the meantime as the only policeman on the Island Simon was given authorisation to investigate until they could come.

Back in Lafferton Simon`s twin sister Cat had married Simon`s boss Chief Constable Keiron Bright. Cat was back working as a GP but felt pressurised and frustrated she could not provide good patient care. Cat received an offer from an old friend from Med School to set up a private fee paying GP practice.

Meanwhile Lafferton was suffering from a spate of arson attacks. Keiron was also being pestered to open up a cold case review into the disappearance of Kimberley Still who went missing five years earlier. Whilst Simon was on sick leave he asked him to review the case file for anything missed.

After a long wait I found The Comforts of Home disappointing. I enjoyed this series because they were sophisticated crime novels. In this book I missed the atmospheric cathedral city of Lafferty. I also missed reading about Cat and her patients and sometimes their medical conditions.

I was also unhappy with the outcome of Simon`s two investigations. I don't think Simon would of dealt with the Taransay murder the way he did. The cold case was interesting and could of been developed further instead of being solved in four chapters.

I still like Simon Serrailer and his family and look forward to reading about their new lives. I whole heartedly recommend this series to all new readers. I hope Susan Hill returns to her previous form in the next book.

Thanks Netgalley and the author. Oh how I really love DC Sumon Serrailler who is based in Lafferton. This was a great crime fiction, easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable.

I always love books by Susan Hill and this doesn't disappoint. The characters are what makes her books a class above lots of other authors of this genre.
They are interesting and believable despite any faults they might have.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone.

My first venture in to the Simon Serrailler series. An interesting and intriguing storyline with many twists and turns to get to the final and surprising conclusion to this intricate case.

'The Comforts of Home' is the ninth book to feature DC Simon Serrailler based with the Lafferton police. I for one was overjoyed to see a new Serrailler novel as the eighth book released back in 2014 leaves four years between that and this. I'm not sure what has made it that lengthy, but I am extremely heartened to see him back doing what he does best - detecting!

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this, I didn't feel it was quite up to the exceptional five-star worthy standard that Hill's novel usually elicit from me but it still leaves most modern thriller writers looking like absolute amateurs. We catch up with Simon and stop in to see how both his physical and mental recovery is going after the chaos that took place in the previous book 'The Soul of Discretion'. However, his relocation to Taransay means there is a lot happening in various different places and this leaves the story with a lack of focus. The setting is wonderful and just like the characters is beautifully drawn, and the prose is compulsively readable as always.

This million-selling series is one that many crime buffs will appreciate but especially those who particularly like old school, atmospheric reads and novels with some form of substance to them. As someone who has studied and has a deep interest in psychological matters, I found I really missed Hill's discussion of these issues as they didn't seem to make an appearance in this book. I can't help but feel a little disappointed and perhaps shortchanged. I hope the profound aspect that Hill creates so expertly is due to return in the upcoming additions.

Many thanks to Chatto & Windus for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I enjoyed this book. Everything is beautifully written. I could imagine myself there and imagine the characters and the surroundings. I really like that Simons family are also in the book. It gives the story more depth and makes it more interesting. I would recommend this book and I hope that there are more books to come in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Writing about Patrick Gale‘s new novel, Take Nothing With You, I mentioned that I had originally come to his work through the recommendation of one of my reading groups. The same is true of Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler books, the first of which, The Various Haunts of Men, was an immediate hit with everyone in the group who read it. While very much a police procedural, it was a success even with group members who would never normally choose to read that genre I think for two reasons: firstly, it was, as you might expect, extremely well written, and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was as much concerned with the psychological effect that the revelation of the murderer had on the close- knit community of Lafferton as on the reveal itself. Unfortunately, to my way of thinking at least, none of the subsequent books (and this is the ninth in the series) has ever quite lived up to that opening episode in the life of DCI (as he was then, DS now) Simon Serrailler and the rest of his rather dysfunctional family and while The Comforts of Home is as well written as the first instalment it really doesn’t hang together as a coherent whole.

There are several different narrative strands at play in the novel. Chief among these, I suppose, is the storyline relating to Serrailler himself. Seriously injured at the end of the eighth book, and still on extended sick leave, Simon takes himself off to a small Scottish island where he is well-known to a community that will give him the space he needs to continue his recovery. Joined there by his nephew, Sam, they are both shocked when the body of relative newcomer, Sandy Murdoch, is found, the more so when it becomes apparent that the death is not accidental.

However, pretty much equal narrative weight is given to the ongoing events in Lafferton, where Serrailler’s widowed sister, Cat, has married her brother’s boss, Kieron Bright, the local Chief Constable. Bright is faced with a series of apparently random arson attacks fortunately on derelict properties, but worrying nonetheless, so when the mother of a young woman who went missing five years earlier turns up demanding that her daughter’s case be reopened even though everyone is fairly certain that the man who abducted her is already behind bars, he sends the files north to Simon and asks him to look into it.

Then we have the French strand centred around Simon and Cat’s father, as nasty a piece of work as you are ever likely to meet. Saving face by leaving England after escaping a rape charge on a technicality, and now involved with a young waitress, Delphine, he sets up as part of the ex-pat community only to turn tail and hot foot it back to England when things go wrong, becoming ill in the process and forcing Cat into a position where she has to take him into her home, thus threatening her new relationship. After all, who could possibly be more important than him. (As you might have gathered, personally I would have swung for Richard Serrailler; ill or not, he would never have set foot over the doorstep. Cat is much nicer than I am.)

Add to this the question of what Sam, Cat’s eldest, is going to do with his life and the issue of how Cat herself is going to cope with the life balance of going back to work as a GP at the same time as bringing up her family and establishing a new relationship and you have more storylines than you can shake a stick at.

Writing about this mishmash of plots it suddenly strikes me that what it most resembles is an episode of a soap opera, specifically, I think, The Archers, for which Hill once wrote. First, you follow this character’s storyline, then you focus on someone else, before switching back to catch up on events that started out in a previous instalment. Reaching the conclusion of this particular segment there are several strands left open-ended but that’s all right because it will bring you back at the same time tomorrow night. Except it isn’t all right, because there probably won’t be another episode for a couple of years and at no point do I feel that there is one driving narrative line that pushes this particular instalment forward; that gives it a focal point. What it seemed to me that I was left with when I reached the end of The Comforts of Home, was the need to search for some sort of theme that would at least link the disparate parts of the book together, as you occasionally find in an episode of say Casualty, where several incidents will all have the same underlying message. If there is such a message then I suppose it is to do with not trying to rush things but to give life the time it needs to work things out, a sensible enough pronouncement, but no substitute for a good plot. When the next episode is finally available I’m not sure that I will be tuning in.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House U.K. for a review copy.

The Comforts Of Home opens almost exactly where the last Serrailler novel ended, with Simon grievously injured in the course of duty, and the core of the book concerns his recovery from those injuries, first on the Scottish Island of Taransay, where he inevitably becomes involved in a murder investigation, and then back home in the fictional cathedral town of Lafferton, where the cold case of a missing girl has been reopened at the insistence of her mother, while an arsonist carries out a series of attacks in the area.

The strength of Hill's Simon Serrailler has always been a strong focus on character, with Simon's GP sister Cat and her family playing as important a part as does police detective Simon, and the dramas of family life for Cat, Simon and their father often being almost as central to the books as the crimes themselves. However, in The Comforts Of Home this strength becomes the book's greatest weakness. The first 40% of the book deals with Simon's rehabilitation on on Taransay, while back in Lafferton, Cat's career crisis and difficulties with her teenage children are the focus. In a third concurrent narrative, their increasingly sinister father, Richard's, time in France is described in detail. However, where previous books have worked the family dramas into the investigation from the start, here the detection doesn't really takes off until the second half of the novel, which makes it feel like slow going.

While Hill's characters have always existed in an upper middle class milieu this hasn't usually affected my enjoyment of the books because they have also have tended to have a healthy dollop of self-awareness. However, in The Comforts Of Home their privilege sat increasingly uneasily with me; in a country where it's estimated that 14 million people live in poverty, including 1 in 3 children, I found it especially difficult to swallow Cat's justification to work in private medicine, when her reasoning was that £100 a month isn't much to most families, just the equivalent of "a supper out or half a dozen bottles of average wine". In fact Cat, who has previously been the moral centre of the novels (as set against Simon's emotional coldness and Richard's violence, which is all the more sinister for his polite upper class facade) was the greatest disappointment here. Not just leaving the NHS but her continued support for her proven domestic abuser and accused rapist father, she comes across as an almost entirely different person from previous novels.

These elements could be almost forgiven, though, if the writing was strong and the crime element as intriguing as previous books, but sadly neither is true. The murder on Taransay in which Simon becomes embroiled comes with <spoiler> some unpleasant transphobia </spoiler> while both the cold case and the arsons back in Lafferton lack any sense of urgency or narrative coherence. Overall - and surprisingly, given the long wait for The Comforts Of Home - it reads like a series of short story ideas stitched into a novel at the last minute. I would still wholeheartedly recommend Hill's previous Serrailler books, and hope this is a blip in an otherwise excellent series.

I've been so looking forward to this book, having loved the previous Simon Serraillier novels. It was great to be back with the familiar characters and places, although my memory needed jogging a bit because of the gap between the last book and this one. I enjoyed it and while it felt like a more gentle story than some of the others in the series, it still kept me entertained.

This was a disappointing book. It is slow to start and has a disappointing ending. There are two separate murders,one on a Scottish island and the main one in England. The Scottish one results in the detective doing the wrong thing professionally. The book also has detail about the detective's father's issues and his nephew's need for careers advice. Never ther are anything other than padding.

Totally different from my usual read - thank you NetGalley for the chance to try a new author. Serarailler is a character I hope to meet from time to time - I was not disappointed on this first contact and now I want to return to his early appearances and learn more. The descriptive island existence and the twist that makes you think twice about the folks you think you know made this a thoroughly enjoyable read. Here's to the next one - soon !

The Comforts of Home is the 9th book in the Simon Serrailler series by Susan Hill and like all the previous books is excellently written and thoroughly engrossing.

The previous book had seen Serrailler in a bad way and this book starts off with his rehabilitation which involves some time away in his favourite place.

As with the other books a number of the other family members feature and thrhe stories also move along whist adding to the overall story.

Susan Hill, the author, has a brilliant way with words and some of the turns of phrase used are excellent.

This has been once of the best books that I have read this year and is definitely recommended

I really like this series and was delighted to see Simon and his extended family return. The writing is as crisp as ever and the scenes set in Scotland were particularly vivid and enjoyable. However I felt the crime, or crimes at the centre of the story were a little less convincing.