Middle class soap with added criminal elements

This series leaves me with such oddly mixed feelings - I see it mostly as a soap, and I admit I am rather addicted but I feel as though I'm supposed to like or at least admire the lead character DCI Simon Serrailler and I'm afraid I just cannot. In this, I was so pleased that he went and got his heart broken. The slap his annoyingly perfect sister delivered was long overdue IMHO. What a sanctimonious ass he is!

As said by another reviewer, I also believe there is a huge error in this story. A previous book had the unlikeable father tell his daughter Kat how her mother delivered a lethal drug to her disabled sister. I had actually been wondering whether she then told Simon but it wasn't mentioned again until this story when the author turns it around and writes that it's Simon who was the one who had been told and he lets slip the news to his sister. A real howler.

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1 person found this helpful

To much angst not enough crime!

I was disappointed in this book - I have enjoyed all the others in the series. I felt that the crime in this book would have fitted into a couple of chapters, the cancer suffering, the motor neurone disease trauma and the Parkinson sufferer along with the all the anguish about the detectives love life was to much for me.

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3 people found this helpful

Disappointed

I rather think I dislike Simon Serailler. And I don't enjoy being lectured on dementia and MND - suffered by my mother and my mother-in-law. And the whodunit was unsatisfactory too. Shame.

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1 person found this helpful

Great series

Another great listen , I love this series. Highly recommend really wish it would be made into a TV series.

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A crime novel and much more!

A cold case for Simon Serailler - the bodies of two young women are discovered when torrential rain washes out part of the hillside, both murdered several years ago. His investigation is made the more difficult by the reluctance of some witnesses to tell the whole truth. At the same time he is worried about his sister, Cat, and how she is coping in her changed circumstances with her busy medical practice and young family. He is also involved in the problems being experienced by his step-mother with Simon's father, a man Simon himself has never fully understood. As usual with Hill's books other threads emerge and are developed covering voluntary euthanesia and the management of patients with dementia and these may or may not have some connection with the murders. I probably would have given 5* had I not been somewhat irritated with the details of Simon's tentative romance which kept interrupting the main storyline and which contained too much "teenage" angst for my liking. The reading by Steven Pacey was as admirable as ever.

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disappointed with ending

it didn't make sense that a detective would feel sorry for perpetrator not arrest her

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Continuing the saga

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Betrayal of Trust?

As ever with the series from Susan Hill there are twists and turns but the trajectory follows along at a good pace. The stories are well crafted and, like other good modern detectives books, getting to know the characters is an integral part of the story. The peripherals are interesting especially the family background. The "soap opera" elements can jar a little as we follow the family and the coincidences can feel a little contrived, but that is common to many books. If it were "real" it may not be so interesting.

Have you listened to any of Steven Pacey’s other performances? How does this one compare?

As ever great performance from Steven Pacey who is one of my favourite readers.

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Great read

I know this book hasn’t been everyone’s cup of tea, but having read all the Serrailler books so far, I liked this one.
Needless to say, there are a couple of unresolved stories which makes me need to read the next book!

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Fantastic

Great book! Really enjoyed reading it! Ready to continue the series! Susan Hill is great!

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EOxcellent everything

SECOND TIME OF READING IT. COULDN'T PUT IT OFF AND WASTED hours listening when I Should have been SLEEPING. THE BEAUTY OF AUDIBLE IS I CAN DO HOUSEWORK WHILE LISTENING.

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