The Shadows in the Street: A Simon Serrailler Novel (Simon Serrailler 5) [Hardcover]

Dorothy L Sayers called "Busman's Honeymoon" "A love story with detective interruptions". I am increasingly convinced that Susan Hill's excellent Simon Serrailler series is a family or perhaps a community story with detective interruptions. This is particularly noticeable in this book because the echoes of Trollope which have been present throughout the series become very insistent with the arrival in the cathedral close of ringers for Dr and Mrs Proudie and their tame canon. All ecclesiastical hell is forthwith let loose in the form of the High Church/Low Church antipathy (including the spats over music) so integral to Barchester Towers. But here the extra spice is added not by the problem of who is to be warden of the hospital, but by divisions amongst the church helpers as to how best to deal with Lafferton's emerging and complex prostitution problem. And hence, as two prostitutes are killed, we slide into the detective interruptions; Simon returns from leave to take over the murder enquiry and to welcome two bright new faces to his team (though past form with Hill leaves one doubtful as to whether they will be with us for many books - for her the powerful relationships lie outside the environment of work). The detective elements this time seem generally pretty unrewarding for all involved (which one suspects is far nearer to the truth than many detective novels would have us believe) - some pretty obvious leads are chased up to no great effect, the press have to be kept at bay and the teams motivated while a lot of no progress is made and more women - one even from the hallowed precincts of the Close disappear.
Meanwhile Susan Hill moves us incredibly skillfuly between the progress of Simon's family (Cat in Eleanor Bold mode bridging the gap between High and Low Church, Simon's faltering steps towards a workable relationship with his father's new wife, the family conversations in the kitchens at the farmhouse and Hallam House) and beautifully written vignettes which bring to life the people who will be joining us for this book only - the victims, the suspects, the friends whose paths cross that of the murderer. With the latter group the great skill of Susan Hill is evident in the fact that you let all of them go at the end of the book with regret - they have become real, and one wants to know how they progress, even after the denoument which reveals the perpetrator. And about that denoument - really not even a detective interruption - the solution of the case is not one for which any of the detective team will be able to claim much credit!
So the series remains one which is bound to disappoint those who want a detective novel to be all or even principally about detection, and the police team, but which offers a wonderful read, a nuanced and real story (apart from that body count in Lafferton, which is really getting worrying!) which engages with and debates the difficulties of family and community life. For myself, I think this is all to the good, but I know others think differently!

We have read each of the four previous Serrailler novels but we are also reading a collection of Peter James and Mark Billingham detective novels/books at the same time. Normally Susan Hill's novels are the red wine to James' Stella Artois style - hers smooth and cultured as against James' more brash and shocking approach. The latest Hill piece, however, seems to lack that depth and finish - not sure why but some characters appear, you gain insight, and then they die and disappear, and other potential suspects seem too obviously written out of it too early. Enjoyed reading what feels like an old friend - just feel less moved by the experience than I would have liked.

Susan Hill's Serrailler books are one of the best series currently being written: using the genre of the crime novel as a skeleton upon which to hang her stories, she supercedes the genre in lots of ways which has led to her books being dismissed as disappointing. Strictly speaking, they're books in which a crime takes place, rather than books which pursue the investigation and come to a neat and tidy conclusion. Instead she concentrates on the people touched by the crime, and unpeels the layers of their lives to reveal them to us.

This book focuses on the seamy underside of middle-class cathedral town Lafferton which has not been explored in previous books. It's a fine antidote to the recent rather worrying glamorisation of prostitution in Belle du Jour etc., without ever descending to either to sentimental or the judgemental. Hill is an extremely controlled writer, though she hides it well, and so there are no clumsy insertions of moral or social indignation here, instead these young women are painted just as people: flawed, inept, self-delusional, but also incredibly courageous. Abi, in particular, is an incredibly moving portrait of a woman who is a mother first and a prostitute only second.

Hill, as ever, is an acute observer of character (e.g. Ruth Webber who laughs 'often and loudly' but never smiles), and manages to create vignettes (e.g. Leah) that make us really care about a character in just a few pages. In this sense she is as indebted to Dickens as she is to Trollope, the allusions to whom are more pointed here, as other reviewers have pointed out. And like her predecessors'these are incredibly robust novels which never shy away from pain, death and the sheer sadness of people's lives.

The focus on the Serraillers is still here, of course, and there are some interesting parallels made between Simon himself, the perpetual loner, and the profile of the man responsible for killing the women.

I did feel that the ending was a little too 'crime novel' with the confrontation in the kitchen, and, perhaps, a few too many people with mental illnesses in the same little group but that's a small quibble. It certainly didn't interfere with what is another fine, subtle and perceptive novel - highly recommended.