Product Description

In the peaceful cathedral city of Lafferton, a gunman is terrorising young women. What - if anything - links the attacks? Is the marksman with a rifle the same person as the killer with a handgun or do the police have two snipers on their hands? Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler is in charge of the case, but he is also struggling to deal with a tragedy at the heart of his own family. Two forthcoming events - a local fair and the high-profile cathedral wedding of the Lord Lieutenant's daughter - only add to the pressure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1961 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
A triumph: cunningly plotted, shrewdly characterised. Hill has an understanding of evil that is both acute and disconcerting. Literary Review The psychology and pace of the whole - and the quality of the writing - are utterly absorbing. Country Life Masterly story telling from an accomplished writer The Good Book Guide All the ingredients for the perfect crime novel are here, but the added value comes from Hill's distinctive and human psychological insights. The Daily Mail Delicious agony...The suspense-building techniques of Alfred Hitchcock have long been locked into Susan Hill's literary apparatus and they are given full rein here Daily Express Susan Hill's crime novels are getting better and better... The main plot is straightforward enough -- who is the killer and will he be caught? -- but the narrative is so streamlined and effective that it races beautifully along until it smacks against the buffers of an unexpected but entirely convincing ending Spectator It's a wonder it hasn't been snapped up for telly Scotland on Sunday I stayed up gone two in the morning and by the end there were tears in my eyes Daily Telegraph As always, Hill creates a marvellous cast of characters with absorbing contemporary concerns... This is crime reading for those who relish a perceptive take on human nature as much as finding out whodunit Daily Mail

Eurocrime.co.uk
`full marks to Susan Hill for her ability to face the unfaceable'

Reviewingtheevidence.com
`I devoured it in a couple of days - and I know I'll read the next one in the series'

Customer Reviews

Welcome return for Simon Serrailler
This book is every bit as gripping as its predecessors. A gunman is terrorising Lafferton, especially young women about to get married. Simon has to track down this serial killer before he can do any more damage. The press don't think he is doing enough and his colleagues are frustrated at the lack of meaningful leads. But Simon must also deal with the serious illness of his brother in law and the advent of a new woman into his widowed father's life.
What always grips me about these stories is that Simon is a far from perfect human being. He resents his father's new partner and cannot make up his mind about whether he wants someone in his own life permanently. He rows with his much loved sister Cat, and lets his own feelings colour his relationships with colleagues to the extent he almost misses his chance to unmask the gunman.
As ever, this is a complex story with many sub plots which keep you guessing right to the end. I had my suspicions about the identity of the gunman - which proved to be correct - but this did not spoil my enjoyment of the story. The clues are there but so are the red herrings and there are several possible candidates. Will Helen and Phil find happiness in spite of Helen's disapproving son? How will Cat cope when she has to be doctor and wife and still maintain a normal front for the children? What about the fate of the various young women about to be married and the Royal visitors to the society wedding? Jane Fitzroy also makes an appearance - how will Simon deal with seeing her again?
A well written and thought provoking psychological thriller about human beings with all their faults.

INSIGHT AND SENSITIVITY
Susan Hill has once again made her latest in the Simon Serrailler series an unstopable read. As a forensic psychotherapist I am amazed and delighted by her insight into the darker aspects of the human condition. So many crime writers depend on the sensational alone and lack awareness of the fact that murderous thinking and acts exist alongside the ordinary and mundane. 'The Vows of Silence' is a wonderful blend of life in the raw from so many rich perspectives of its characters. The depth and reality of each character provides a griping experience which continues long after the last page. I hope we dont need to wait too long before we enter into the lives of Simon and his family again.

Brilliant return of Simon Serrailler
*****MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*****

It's been quite a long wait for this most recent episode in the life of Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler but how worthwhile!

Serrailler is back in VOWS OF SILENCE and Susan Hill has yet again provided a book which has to be read at one sitting!

Serrailler has his hands full with a gunman who is picking off, apparently at random, young females. He is methodical, cold and in control and with the victims having no obvious links the case is proving a frustrating one for Serrailler who at one stage admits `he has the upper hand'.

Not only does Serrailler have to cope with the shootings, his brother-in-law Chris, who has just arrived back with the family after 9 months in Australia, is diagnosed with a brain tumour. The resultant family crisis he and his sister Cat have to face is matched only in part (certainly for Serrailler) by the arrival of a new partner for his recently bereaved father - a man Serrailler has never been able to get along with.

Serrailler can't cope with the woman who has taken his beloved mother's place, and his attitude just adds to Cat's trauma of seeing her husband suffer abysmally after surgery and radiotherapy.

This might sound like a depressing book but it isn't, not by a long way. Hill has a remarkable way of interweaving all her characters in a way that cannot help but draw you in - their strengths and their weaknesses are to the fore and she sets the scene for an exciting story that has you guessing to the end - and invariably the perpetrator is quite a surprise!

Simon Serrailler will go down in the history of crime novels as one of the better detectives. There is nothing superhuman about him, he is totally believable as a person, a fine detective and a much needed loving uncle for young Sam.

Fortunately (and with a sigh of relief from Serrailler fans) Susan has now started writing the next, called THE TREE IN WINTER, which will be published in 2009 - not long now!!