The Betrayal of Trust

A Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler Mystery, Book 6

By: Susan Hill

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Simon Serrailler is faced with that most complicated of investigations - a cold case. Freak weather and flash floods have hit southern England. The small cathedral town of Lafferton is underwater, and a landslip on the moor has closed the roads. As the rain slowly drains away, a shallow grave - and a skeleton - is exposed; 20 years have passed, and the remains of missing teenager Joanne Lowther have finally been uncovered.

Joanne, an only child, had been on her way home from a friend's house that night. She was the daughter of a prominent local businessman, and her mother had killed herself two years after she disappeared, unable to cope.

Cold cases are always tough, and in this latest mystery in the acclaimed series from Susan Hill, Simon Serrailler is forced to confront his most grisly, dangerous, and complex case yet.

©2011 Susan Hill. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGo

Just love Susan Hill

Amazingly gifted story writer. Each one of the books in this series were so enjoyable and Steven Pacey should win an award for his narration. Hoping for another in this series.

Great Audible Plus Find

I was able to stumble across this gem, due to the availability of the Audible Plus catalog. Having searched extensively for a new listen, as soon as I heard the narrator and the writing style of the author I knew it was the one for me. The author has the ability to write as though reading one’s thoughts. Atmospheric and descriptive, the author writes about, murder, life, death, love, sickness, aging, ethics and a number of those compromising niggling things in between, which fall between the bookends of black and white.

Don't Let the Inaccurate Description Throw You

I have been enjoying this series of books. As I was reviewing the stories I had already listened to, I got confused. The description of the plot doesn't match the actual story line. Yes, two bodies were unearthed during a storm, but the names and amount of time the girls were missing is wrong. I know it is petty, but that really bugs me!

Serrailler as Juggler

When two skeletons are unearthed during a flood, Serrailler finds himself with two cold cases, a woman that wants to commit suicide and a love interest that's married. Throw in a violent woman with dementia and a sketchy doctor. Somehow, Hill ties everything together. There are a few loose strings at the end.

Had to stop myself to sleep - this is a good one

This is my favorite in the series so far. The mystery and the characters! Simon's story advances quite a bit here, and the way the characters intertwine kept me intrigued in such a way that I had to force myself to stop and sleep. Could have gone thru this one in one go!

Great story

This is one of the best in my opinion. Along with the mystery, as usual there is another story going on. It takes on a very serious,debated subject. Assisted suicide. The subject is covered well with one character being terminally ill and looking into it. We get a little of the “pro and con” sides. I am loving this series, only a couple more with the Plus Catalog, will wind up buying the rest!

story not bad ending attrocious

The overall story was not bad and the narrator was good. I found the ending offensive to police officers. A detective, allegedly great at his job who is in charge of the CID office gest a confession from a woman who witnessed 1 murder her life partner committed and assisted in committing a 2nd murder with her life partner 16 years prior, and the detective says he's not going to do anything about it and just walks away oh hell no. If you don't know about police procedure do not write about it

I realize I don't like Susan Hill

I've just read the entire series, so this review is to cover them all. She writes well, plots are unlikely, but she carries them off for the most part, due to character development and command of English language.

My problem is that with this book and several others she commits what I feel is outright "entrapment". She starts out with characters who take opposite sides of moral arguments, leading you to believe it is just that--a discussion meant to show two sides of the debate and hopefully enrich plot development. And then, she turns the person(s) who represent the side of the argument the author doesn't represent into evil, or insane serial killers. Her side of any argument is based solely on traditional medicine, and traditional beliefs underpinned by very traditional Catholic morality.

A good example is Book 1, wherein at first a main character, Cat, appears to accept the idea that acupuncture can have real benefits, then Hill ends up turning the practitioner into a sexually deviant psychopathic serial killer, and with one broad brush paints all alternative healing methods into evil quackery.

This particular book turned on the subject of the right to choose the how and when of one's own death. I happen to live in a Right to Die state, and am glad of it. Once again the proponents of the side of the argument she doesn't like turns out to be nuts, or evil, or both. She does this a number of times during the series, and by the end I realized that if these books represent the personality and beliefs of the author herself, that I wouldn't like her very much. Way too dogmatic and narrow minded.

And when all was said and done, the short prequel that sucked me back into finishing this devious series just to find out why it even existed, was pointless--as nothing in the previous books led me to understand why Serailler lost an arm and why he was being feted.

I felt like an entire book was left out at the end. Tricked again...

Truly engaging

What made the experience of listening to The Betrayal of Trust the most enjoyable?

I've listened to all of the Susan Hill/Simon Serrailler novels. I can't say what makes them so engaging, but they are. They are not the best mysteries, but it hardly matters, since the characters are so real and engaging, that I'm happy to follow them along as they do their day-to-day activities -- be that cooking meals for their families or solving murders. They are like those long BBC detective series that are long on detail w/o much action, which for me are a great pleasure to watch.

What other book might you compare The Betrayal of Trust to and why?

Any P.D. James

Series losing its sharpness

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The first four books in the series were good, the fifth just okay and this one, the sixth, is just dull and lazy. I liked the characters in the earlier novels but they are becoming insipid. Steven Pacey is a very good narrator as always.