The ninth book in the Chief
Superintendent Simon Serrailler series from British author Susan Hill is a tour
de force—a complicated emotional roller coaster among several deaths, a serial
murderer, and Serrailler’s anguished self-examination about whether he still
wants his job back after a prolonged recovery from an attack that’s cost him a
limb.
The Comforts of Home makes it clear that home is about far more than where you hang your
hat, be it an official uniform cap or a disguise. For Simon Serrailler in his
self-doubt and anger, “home” for recovery at first is on the island or
Taransay, off the British coast, swept by fierce winds and storms. Staying with
friends who won’t pry into his grief (although their sweet young son wants to
know all about the new prosthesis), Simon builds a set of protective walls,
postponing decisions, walking, visiting with the locals. To be with his own
family would be too intense, and he’s not yet confident of his working self,
that most crucial component.
He had a strange sense of re-entering his old life, as if then he had been another man. … He had been young. He had been fit, hale, whole, but he was not whole now though the physical effects of having lost a flesh-and-bone arm and gained a prosthetic one had been far easier to cope with than the psychological ones. He was haunted by the loss of his limb.
When a lone woman on the
island is found dead, and her death turns out to be a complicated killing,
Simon’s the only police professional available to lead an investigation. So
begins his slow return to a recognizable profession. He’s well on his way to
solving this small but poignant case when his sister’s new husband, who happens
to also be Simon’s chief constable, calls for his help on a cold case.
Soon the psychology of the
killer (or killers?) and that of Simon’s own father make a complicated dance of
dysfunction around Serrailler. Readers of the earlier eight books of the series
will appreciate how the demands of the cases tug him back toward characters
they’ve come to trust and admire, because Simon trusts them, and now he
actually needs them, to find his strength again and to manage the challenges of
pursuing those who commit murder.
Although Hill’s books are
well known as award-winning crime fiction, The
Comforts of Home can’t be read as a page-turner: It’s too dense, too
probing, too layered with pain and loss and the kind of love that family and
good friends provide in the middle of life’s major messes. As the best
mysteries do, this one probes the mysteries within, especially the interaction
of an investigator’s own inner darkness and that of the criminals he pursues.
At stake: Can Simon Serrailler pull his personal and professional lives back
into a whole person? Or must he see himself as crippled by the only career he’s
embraced?
While it’s not necessary to
read the earlier titles in the series first—this one’s compact and well
planned—some threads don’t quite tie together without more of Simon Serrailler’s
back-story. So it’s worth going to the others after reading this powerful ninth
in the series, and appreciating the growth of Susan Hill’s own fusion of the
personal and professional, the interior and the complex plot maven. A fine
read, memorable and satisfying in its dark tangles and solutions.
PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.
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