Welcome to the Mysterious World of Susan Hill

Susan Hill's extraordinary collection of mysteries featuring Simon Serrailler and the English cathedral town of Lafferton continues to gain fans and draw attention across the country. New in paperback this month is The Risk of Darkness, which follows last year's hardcover release of The Vows of Silence.

Here's what one appreciative reader has to say: "In The Risk of Darkness- A Simon Serrailler Mystery by Susan Hill. the third in the Sellailler series, one of my favorite police inspectors is back, and finally, for those of you that might have read the second book and been a bit dissatisfied by the ending, we has a conclusion to the crime of the abducted children. And quite a interesting conclusion it is, not one I expected at all. Nor did I suspect that we would have the solution within the first 70 pages of the book. But fear not. As in the previous books of the series, there are any number of other issues, other storylines, to be explored and in this book, the solution of the crime is just the beginning of the story. It is one of the strength of this author, of this series, is that all these various plots can be explores without ever becoming confusing. Of course, not surprisingly, death is at the center of so many of these stories. The heartbreaking reaction of a family to death, a man driven mad by the loss of the one he loves to a horrible illness and even Simon again see death and loss touch his life in several ways. A fine continuation of this series.

In The Vows of Silence, the fourth in the series, the town of Lafferton is being terrorized by a gunman. A woman is killed in her house with a handgun, another shot by a sniper and, to the police, the shootings appear to be random. And while the killer is perused throughout the book and as in previous books, there are given some narrative from the killer point of view, once again the crime is not at the heart of this book. Yes, death is, but not death by murder, and once again our favorite police detective Simon Serrailler will be personally touched. Now, if you have read my reviews of the three previous books in this series, you know I am a fan of Ms. Hill's book. And I will continue to be a fan and anxiously await the next book that will be released in September. I think Simon and his family and acquaintances are excellent characters, I love the cathedral town of Lafferton and I will indeed be back for the next episode. If you have not read any of the books in this series, I must say that this is one series that really must be read in order. These books are written in order and if you are to have a chance of understanding the characters, you must get to know their history and that means starting at the very, very good first book, The Various Haunts of Men. Once you get to know Simon and the rest, will be so vested in them that you will even forgive them one book that was not up to the very high standards of the rest."