More Praise for Susan Hill's THE RISK OF DARKNESS

"Fans of the new breed of British psychological mysteries, a sub-genre that has been led for years now by Elizabeth George and P.D. James, will be thrilled to know there’s a new series to add to their reading lists: Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler books. The Risk of Darkness is Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler’s third literary excursion and it is a doozy. If you’re looking for a sleepy Sunday read, this is not it. This book is a tense, surprise-packed, complex, modern mystery masterpiece. DCI Serrailler is asked to assist in the investigation of a missing 8 year-old boy, a case very similar to one he had run into a dead-end on months before. When the unlikely culprit is caught, a number of lives are affected. This main plot is interwoven with that of Serrailler’s physician sister, Cat Deerborn, and a distraught young husband under her care. Like the best modern mystery writers, Ms. Hill doesn’t tie off every loose end—as in real life, questions stay unanswered and lives are left in unresolved shreds. Unaccustomed readers may be disconcerted by this; however, if this type of tale is your cup of tea, get ready to pour, drink, and enjoy." - Michelle Kerns, Sacramento Book Review

Susan Hill's THE RISK OF DARKNESS is "Original, Wrenching and Unforgettable"

Eleanor Bukowsky offers glowing praise of Susan Hill's new mysery The Risk of Darkness on the terrific Mostly Fiction website: "Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series is one of the most original, wrenching, and unforgettable of all the police procedurals to come out of England. In The Risk of Darkness, the writing and dialogue are as sharp as ever, and the fast-paced narrative is absolutely mesmerizing. All of the characters are superbly delineated, from the main character to those who make only brief appearances. Simon has many admirable qualities: He is devoted to his sister and mother; he is a dedicated office of the law; and he is an extremely gifted artist. Unfortunately, he is also self-centered, reclusive, and cold towards those women unlucky enough to fall in love with him. . . .In The Risk of Darkness, Susan Hill explores many thought-provoking themes that she introduced in her earlier works: What is the nature of evil? How can the loss of a loved one bring a person to the brink of despair? What price do homicide detectives pay for their exposure, day after day, to the worst offenses that human beings can commit? Is there any way that true justice can be meted out to child murderers? How do members of families and communities support and, in some cases, undermine one another? The author challenges us to shake off our complacency and take a hard look at the harsh realities of our contemporary world. One may quibble that The Risk of Darkness has too much heartbreak and too little joy. That may be true, but the book's strengths compensate for the sadness that the story generates. Fans of Simon Serrailler will eagerly await the release of the next installment, The Vows of Silence."

Stocking Stuffers for the Literati: Susan Hill's THE MAN IN THE PICTURE

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a great idea for a Christmas stocking stuffer: "Susan Hill knows how to tell a ghost story, and The Man in the Picture is a stylish little gem that's creative in conception and traditional in execution. Hill masterfully builds the dread as she lays out the story, but she never oversteps the bounds of edginess into excess. With a refined touch that other authors should envy, she makes this elegant story sing by melding the ethos of the traditional ghost story with the assurance of a contemporary prose artist."

High Praise for Susan Hill's THE MAN IN THE PICTURE in Rocky Mountain News

The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill receives a "A" grade from Mark Graham of the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado: "Hill's tightly woven spectral novella begins in traditional ghost-story style as horrors are revealed to an unfortunate narrator. Just listen to the first line: "The story was told to me by my old tutor, Theo Parmitter, as we sat beside the fire in his college rooms one bitterly cold January night." You know that nothing good can follow. In his younger days, Parmitter bought a painting of masked revelers near one of Venice's canals. To the Cambridge don, the picture appears to contain faces of people in the throes of terror, people who don't want to be in it. The story he tells his former student reveals the painting's curse and threatens the existence of both of them. Final word: This exquisite little tale should remind readers of great writers in the genre, such as Dickens, Poe and Peter Straub. Don't miss it."

Susan Hill's THE MAN IN THE PICTURE On Sale Today

From the renowned storyteller Susan Hill—whose first ghost story, The Woman in Black, has run for eighteen years as a play in London’s West End—has returned to a form that is fully classical and, in Hill’s able hands, newly vital. The Man in the Picture is a haunting tale of loss, love, and the very basest fear of our beings.

"A real treat for fans of a true, elegant ghost story, this slim novella is as accomplished a chiller as you would expect from the author of The Woman in Black. Told second-hand, as is traditional, alongside a scotch, a glowing log fire and a crackle of menace, it relates the history of a sinister painting and a figure in it who looks out at the viewer "with what I can only describe as pleading." This is chilling stuff – so make sure there's someone else in the room before you come to the end." - Independent

Check out the book trailer on You Tube!