The Betrayal of Trust: Simon Serrailler Book 6 (Simon Serrailler 6) [Kindle Edition]

I have never been disappointed by Susan Hill's novels, and always recommend them to family and friends.

However, this novel appeared to "run out of steam", and I felt the ending was rushed. I do not want to spoil this for other readers, and although I am sure the ending was legally researched, having got to "know" Simon Serrailler over the course of this series, I felt he would have dealt with the outcome in a different way??

Having said that, it is a good read and there are lots of issues remaining, which I look forward to being picked up in the next novel.

The sixth book from Susan Hill to feature the inhabitants of Lafferton. The two main characters are siblings Dr Cat Deerbon and top cop DCS Simon Serrailler. The plots and themes explored usually feature the family's ongoing story and topics and situations thrown up by the pair's respective professions; health or lack of it, crime in society - all sensitively addressed in Hill's brilliant prose and her thoughtful insights into human emotions. Crime fiction? Well yeah, but not really comparable to much of the genre's staples and conventions.
In this one flooding in Lafferton has unearthed the bones of a young girl missing for 16 years, a mystery from the past that caused a big splash on the national consciousness. But alongside them are the bones of another young woman whose disappearance contrastingly caused not even a ripple. Serrailler is tasked with the cold case but is hampered by severe budget restrictions and he's just met the love of his life. Cat Deerbon deals with financial problems directing the local hospice, calling on the expertise of a newcomer to the town who is setting up a new care home for Alzheimer sufferers. In her general surgery she is consulted by a woman called Jocelyn with the early symptoms of Motor Neurone Disease, which leads to the thorny subject of assisted suicide. I think Hill tackles the subject as objectively as possible, though of course her characters are more swept along with the emotions of the terrible choices they face. Age, mortality, memory, lives lived and lives cut short, all played out in the setting of a Cathedral town and tied together with the lines of synchronicity within a cold case murder inquiry. I would add the advisory that this one is probably going to have more resonance with older readers or folk who have had their lives touched by terminal illness.

I was lying in bed, minding my own business, nicely relaxed, listening to the final CD (the whole book was well read by Stephen Pacey). Then suddely 'That was Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill'. Was the CD damaged and skipped to the end? Got the CD out of the player - no it looked fine. Called up the Amazon reviews - ahh not the only person to feel that this book ended very abruptly. It was almost as if the author had to type x number of words, and having done so ended the book. Very unsatisfying.

On the plus side I did get to the end of this book so it was at least moderately well written and entertaining. But I kept listening in the hope that there would be resolution to at least some of the story lines that had been created. But no... it was not to be.

It seems like the author used the book as a vehicle to explore issues in which she is interested (and clearly has strong feelings)....which is all well and good. But in the process the importance of the story telling element was lost.

I also got the feeling that the lack of resolution was used as a tool to encourage the reader to buy the next book in the series. To a certain extent an author can get away with this, but it was carried too far in this offering.

I did enjoy the earlier books in the series more, and having got to book number 6 I have started to find Simon boring....... handsome, intelligent, articulate, gifted artist, unlucky in love - its just to formulalic. No real character development. The characters are all painfully middle class without a money worry between them. And the scenes with his latest love are more like something out of a teen magazine, truly dreadful.

So overall this book is patchy, parts are well written, but let down by one dimensional characters, ideology and an incredibly rushed and unsatifying ending.