The Soul of Discretion
A Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler Mystery
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4.4 • 18 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Susan Hill—the Man Booker Prize nominee and winner of the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham, and John Llewellyn Rhys awards—returns with a gripping new novel, the latest chapter in one of the most acclaimed mystery series of our time. From the outside, the cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place. It suffers from the same kinds of crime, is subject to the same pressures from a rapidly changing world, and has the same hopes and fears as any number of towns up and down the land. When Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton’s new Chief Constable, Kieran Bright, he is met by two plainclothes officers, who ask him to take the principal role in a difficult, potentially dangerous undercover operation. He must leave town immediately, without telling anyone—not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him. Meanwhile, Simon's sister Cat is facing difficult choices at work, as Lafferton’s hospice closes its bedded units—and at home, as her daughter is presented with a glittering opportunity that they would have to struggle to afford. And all is not well with Simon and Cat's stepmother, Judith, either. To complete his special operation, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. This takes its toll on Simon and—as the investigation unfolds—also on the town and some of its most respected citizens.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hill's subpar eighth crime novel based in Lafferton, England (after 2012's A Question of Identity), the authorities hit a dead end investigating a child-porn ring and send Chief Supt. Simon Serrailler undercover to Stitchford Therapeutic Community Prison. At Stitchford, doctors use intense psychotherapy to try to rehabilitate sex offenders, one of whom is Will Fernley a criminal who could lead the police to his cohorts in the porn ring, if he would only talk. Simon's job is to gain Fernley's confidence. Once inside, Simon can only communicate with the outside world via a phone disguised as a watch. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Simon, his father, Richard, rapes an acquaintance of Richard's. The victim wrestles with whether she should press charges, but this aspect of the story remains underdeveloped. Toward the end, a couple of plot contrivances, one of which involves the watch phone, undermine the realism of the rest of the novel.
