The Vows of Silence: Simon Serrailler 4

Susan Hill is a new (to me :) )British author I've been listening to/reading. It's always a pleasure to find an author you really like who has been writing for awhile, so there is a treasure trove of sorts to plunder. (Phil Rickman, Deborah Crombie (albeit an american who writes British mysteries,) and Christopher Fowler are other audible mystery recommendations (to me) with a collection of brilliant novels to revel in days, weeks or however much time you have to devote to listening to books.) I am constantly listening again and again to the Rickman and Crombie novels as well as Fowler's. I expect to do so with Ms. Hill's Serrailler books.

I normally do not write recommendations but feel motivated to do so because the Simon Serrailler books need to be read in order. (Note Ms. Hill states otherwise on her web site, however, . . ,) The reason? The stories, plot and characters lives, are built upon in each new book. Where one plot starts in an earlier novel, it continues on and into the the following books. By reading Vows of Silence first, I was flung into a world of which its foundations were set forth in the earlier novels. I hope audible picks up the first novel and the most recent one.

As I read the books available on audible backwards in time I realized how much more I would have enjoyed them if read in order. But for me, it just means I will get to read them again, now in order, and appreciate the characters as there were truly intended to be.

Susan Hill is a fabulous writer, but damn, this one is depressing!

Lots of illness, lots of death, and the murderer in this one is killing people just at one of the happiest moments of their lives.

I can understand wanting to prune away some characters in a serial, but really, did she have to do it all in one book? Maybe it's like tearing away a band-aid as opposed to easing it off - it hurts less if you go fast and just get it over with. I dunno. I'm not quite getting Hill's gimmicks - the loose ends, the depressing plot points - but she's a good enough writer (and Pacey a reader) that I'm gonna go along with her...until I can't anymore!

If you're new to Hill, don't start with this book! Go find "The Various Haunts of Men" and start there. That one is not a happy story either, and if you're sensitive to crimes against children, even fictional (crimes and children), you might prefer one of her ghost stories instead. No one is safe in a Susan Hill book!

Real surprise ending.

Cat is my favorite, even though I like Simon, even with his flaws.

Only hear him on Hill's books.

I really, really am put out with the fact that Hill kills off characters that we have come to know and care about. If I wanted doom and gloom, I'd read True Crime novels.

Even with the comment above, I still come back for more of Susan Hill's books!

I really enjoy these books, they are very detailed and I can picture so perfectly this English town and countryside. However, Susan Hill drives me mad with her willingness to kill off key characters. Why does everyone have to die?

I like the way she narrates from the killers point of view.

The death of Chris, although I am mad he died!

Chris's death made me cry.

I hope some happier things happen in the next books, this one brought me down. I am taking a break from this series.