The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill

Children are vanishing.

The village of Lafferton is shattered.

There are no witnesses and no leads – just a kidnapper at large.

Then Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler receives a call: a child has been snatched in Yorkshire. Has the abductor struck again? And will they find this child alive?

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As a blogger and reviewer, I consider myself extremely fortunate to be offered titles for review from time to time.  These offers usually take a fairly standard format – am I interested in reviewing this book by this author?  I was recently contacted by Graeme Williams with a more unusual proposition – would I be interested in reviewing a novel by the well-known author of a popular crime series?  The catch?  I wouldn’t know the author, the book, or the series until it arrived.  I was immediately intrigued, and sent off my choice from the five brief synopses that I was given to choose between.  The book arrived, and I was delighted to receive a copy of The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill, book three in the Simon Serrailler series.  Susan Hill isn’t an author who is new to me (I highly recommend The Woman in Black, particularly at this time of year) but I hadn’t previously read any of this series and was thrilled at the opportunity.

Starting with the third novel in a series isn’t something I’d normally recommend, but in this case I didn’t feel disadvantaged at all.  This is despite the case in question – that of children going missing – starting in the previous novel with the disappearance of a young boy.  The reader is told everything they need to know about the background to this and it’s clear that no progress has been made in the investigation until we get to this novel.  I also like the indication that these novels aren’t always neatly tied up at the end and that the links between them go beyond character and location. 

Simon Serrailler is an interesting character who leads an unusual double life.  On one hand, he’s a hard-working Detective Chief Inspector, chafing at the paperwork and wanting to get back to the action involved in solving a crime.  And he is clearly a man of action as we see when he pursues a suspect down a cliff path at night.  He’s not a man who shies away from danger, and I get the sense that he acts fairly with his subordinates – he wouldn’t deliberately put others in a situation that he himself would avoid.  In his second life, he’s a successful artist with several sales under his belt.  It’s an unusual hobby, but it works as a form of escapism from some of the darker elements of the job.  It was also quite refreshing to have a police protagonist who isn’t losing themselves in the bottle every night, trying to drown their demons.  He’s clearly had moments in his past, and yet he seems relatively content in his life. 

The Risk of Darkness isn’t a fast-paced novel, but I enjoyed the gradual developments in the plot which includes some surprising elements that challenge the reader’s assumptions and expectations.  And I liked that the police have multiple things going on simultaneously – the missing children’s case is the main focus of the novel, but there are other issues to resolve as well, including a hostage situation, amongst other things.  It makes for an exciting and engaging read as there’s always something going on.

One aspect of the novel that I did find to be somewhat unusual is that we meet the perpetrator and yet never understand their motive. They remain a closed book throughout, never revealing much to the police or psychiatrist that they’re assigned once they’ve been imprisoned.  I think that there are instances where a motive never reveals itself, but it’s unusual in a work of fiction. Be warned – if you like your who, what, when, where, and why all neatly answered, you may find this a little frustrating, although it’s possible that this is explored further in the next novel as there’s clearly some overlap in the cases.

Taking place in a village, we do get introduced to a lot of characters quite quickly and I did find it a little confusing to work out who’s who and what their role would be at first.  This becomes easier as the novel progresses, although there were a few moments where I had to remind myself who a particular character was.  I did feel that there were some stereotypes included, and in particular Natalie Coombes – a brash single mother who’s barely keeping it together and who seems to be constantly shouting at or battling with her daughter, Kyra.  It seems to me to be a perpetuation of the stereotypical “working-class” mum, and while it works for the story, it did leave me feeling a little cold. 

The Risk of Darkness is the third in the series of eleven, with the most recent novel, A Change of Circumstance, having just been published in paperback.  As Graeme quite rightly pointed out when he contacted me about this opportunity, diving into a series – particularly one that’s well-established – can be a daunting prospect.  To be completely honest, I’m not sure I’d have picked up this novel – however much I’ve enjoyed other works by Susan Hill – myself.  But this novel works well as a standalone, and I enjoyed it enough that I’ll be reading more in the series. 

The Simon Serrailler novels are published by Vintage.  Huge thanks to the publisher and to Graeme Williams for the copy of The Risk of Darkness. 

Disclaimer – I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has in no way influenced my review.