What a great pleasure it is to be back in the company of Simon Serrailler and his team and family. This one may not be the strongest story line of the series, but it is still a wonder how Susan Hill combines the drama and minutiae of murder investigations with the very personal family stories that make this series of books unique. The writing flows with tremendous style and ease, and the storyline takes the reader’s imagination and runs with it. This book continues with the family saga of Simon, his sister Cat and her family, and combines it with the harrowing world of county lines drug dealing and its consequences for the users, and for the young people who are drawn into this world of greed and evil. The relationships here occasionally stretch credibility but this is easily forgiven as there is so much more to commend in this wonderful series.

This latest in the Simon Serrailler series of detective novels leads us deep into the hidden world of county lines drug dealing. Alongside dealing with the threats posed to the community by this insidious operation, Simon has also reached a point in his life when he's reassessing what he really wants out of it. There are no easy solutions and hence the conclusion felt a little weak but nevertheless an absorbing read.

DCS Simon Serrailler #11

It’s January and we’re deep in winters clutches in Lafferton. A heroin overdose of a young man in a rundown flat above a Chinese pharmacy in Starly leads Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler and his team into a county lines inquiry. Vulnerable children like eleven year old Brooklyn (Brookie) Roper are targeted and groomed. Meanwhile, Simon’s sister Cat Deerbon now married to Chief Constable Kieron Bright has her own issues with patients and personal family worries especially with her son Sam who is in medical training.

I have loved this series since the first one -The Various Haunts of Men- and as we’re now at number eleven the characters feel as comfortable as old slippers and like friends in their familiarity. Simon is so intriguing and continues to do so which takes some skill to maintain in a succession of books. He’s a terrific policeman, a good leader, he cares very deeply about his family and is a great uncle to Cat’s children but he’s very complex and currently extremely restless and at a crossroads in his life. I like the on/off relationship with Rachel Wyatt which adds to the realism. Cat and her family always add a good personal touch and she offers Simon the stability and family he needs. Cat’s role in the books has grown over the years and I do enjoy that.

Although there’s a police team working alongside Serrailler the main focus in this book is on him and Kieron, although it seems as if DC Denzil Aberra is a very keen and likeable addition to the team. These characters are peripheral though. The different strands of the storyline connect well with the plot flowing seamlessly. You feel the parental pain and anger for the unscrupulous grooming of the vulnerable young and this part of the plot is both relevant and shockingly gritty. The gang are utterly ruthless, the bodies pile up and there’s tragedy and heartache for some. This inquiry is compelling although it does end a bit abruptly. The overall ending is a good one with things looking a bit more promising for Simon.

Finally, this is another absorbing and enjoyable addition to the series. It’s well written and easy to read. Although this is the eleventh it can easily be read as a stand-alone but I do recommend the series.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is a somewhat uneven entry in what has become the Serrailler soap opera: some of the storylines have stultified, particularly the case with Cat and her family where tiny issues are given unwarrantable page space (Kieron's pulled ligament, the lost dog, Cat writing to the Health Secretary to complain about a single patient's treatment on a local hospital ward). But just when we think that the emotional intelligence of the earlier books has dribbled away, Hill pulls off a brilliant scene like Olivia in hospital. The drug storyline is handled well and there are some great slice of life portraits here, not least Vince whose brusque parenting hides depths of care. Simon's personal life just doesn't interest me much any more , especially his miraculous volte face at the end - but there's more than enough good stuff here to keep Hill in the game.

This is another very good Serrailler book from Susan Hill, but I have just a few reservations.

The primary driver of the book is a drugs network penetrating a town outside the major cities – the so called county lines. An apparent heroin overdose draws the police’s attention to the problem more forcibly, and we also get the stories of a two young people who are drawn into the network as couriers and their suffering as a result. In addition, the stories of Simon himself and his sister Cat continue to progress.

The whole thing is, of course, extremely well written in that way Susan Hill has of crafting elegant, readable prose which never draws attention to itself but carries the reader along beautifully. The story, too, is a timely one and in many ways well done; the stories of the children involved and of the effects on their families are vivid and gripping, for example. However, I did find the policing aspect just a little clunky and preachy; at one point the Chief Constable gives a long and rather sententious speech to his officers, after which, one comments, “Didn’t have the chief down for a rallying-cry-before-battle sort of guy, did you?” Well, no I didn’t – and he was all the better for it. Serrailler himself sounds a bit like a politician with a pre-written answer at times, too, and I’ve come to expect better from Susan Hill.

All that said, this is still several cuts above the majority of contemporary crime novels. Serrailler is, frankly, often annoying in his approach to his personal life, which is realistic and quite deliberate by Hill and which I rather admire – although there is a hint of more settled things to come. So, although this may not be the finest of the series, it is still very good.

(My thanks to Random House for an ARC via NetGalley.)