Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill

The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill (Harry N. Abrams, 2018) is the ninth book in the Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler series. Serrailler is part of the police force in Lafferton, a fictional cathedral city in the south of England. In this particular entry Serrailler wakes up in hospital after suffering severe injuries on the job. He goes on extended leave to an island off the coast of Scotland to recover, where he’s vacationed before. He settles into a quiet life in the village, visiting the local pub, chatting with the neighbors, walking along the coast, until one of the residents disappears and then is found shot. The local police are happy to consult Serrailler, who is glad to find something to occupy his mind.

In the meantime Lafferton is rocked by a serial arsonist, who is doing a great deal of damage. The mother of a young woman who disappeared years earlier begins to insist that the Lafferton police re-activate the case. The man she believes kidnapped and killed her daughter is in prison for the deaths of other women. While the police agree with her, the prosecutor decided there was not enough evidence to try him for this particular crime, which the mother is not willing to accept. The police chief has no staff to spare for a cold case while they are desperate to locate the arsonist, so he collects the files and sends them off to Simon in Scotland to review. The outcomes of his investigations are surprisingly dark.

One of the delights of this series is that each one has a detailed map of Lafferton in the manner of older village mysteries. I enjoyed orienting myself to the town on this first visit and the various locations mentioned in the story. Even with the map I was a little over my head for the first few pages. It’s clear there has been a good deal of character development in the earlier books and probably this is not the best one to start with. Once the actual police work began, my reading smoothed out.

There is a lot about the state of health care in England in this book, which was easy to incorporate between Simon’s injury and his doctor sister’s presence. It’s all quite heartfelt which makes me suspect the author is speaking from experience.

A good contemporary British police procedural with strong character involvement. New readers should start earlier in the series.

·         Hardcover: 336 pages

·         Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (November 20, 2018)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1468301462

·         ISBN-13: 978-146830146

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.