Product Description

Simon Serrailer's story began in "The Various Haunts of Men" (about a serial killer against a background of alternative medicine) and continued with "The Pure in Heart" (about a kidnapped schoolboy against a background of the 'innocence' of children and the handicapped). Susan Hill is not afraid to tackle difficult issues, nor to face up to the realities of stress in a busy police station. Her third crime novel, "The Risk of Darkness", equally compulsive and convincing, follows up the child abduction and explores the crazy grief of a widowed husband, a derangement which turns to obsession and threats, violence and terror. Meanwhile, handsome, introverted Simon Serrailler, whose cool reserve has broken the hearts of several women, finds his own heart troubled by a feisty female priest with red hair..."The Risk of Darkness" is packed with action and adventure. Like "Various Haunts", it hinges on a terrific twist which comes as a complete surprise to the reader; and like "The Pure in Heart", it deals in depth with complex daily problems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20002 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Waterstone's Books Quarterly
'a multi-layered novel with penetrating insights'

Matthew Dennison, Spectator
'Of its sort The Risk of Darkness is an almost flawless novel.'

The Independent
"This is a crime series that specialises in sidestepping conventions, always to exhilarating effect...risk-taking...sometimes pays off brilliantly."

Customer Reviews

won't be reading another!
i read 'the various haunts of men' and thought it was ok if a bit meandering. I hadn't read the second book in the series but that didn't really matter. Yes, it was well written and quite a 'page-turner' but ultimately disappointing. The amazing 'twist' is revealed early on, leaving you thinking 'is that it'? The child abductor is caught completely by chance, with no detection work involved at all: 'look, there's a car that fits the description, let's chase it!!'. I fail to see how the story of Lizzie and Max Jameson is in any way relevant to the plot; he isn't even tied up to the crime he commits at the end. Once again, all the female characters are intensely annoying, either too-good-to-be-true GP, 'crisis-of-faith' priest, or 'cheap and nasty' single mother. I really would expect more from a female writer.

Unsatisfying.
All was going well with this book for some time. The characters are obvious stereotypes, but I quite warmed to them and their storylines and found the crime storyline interesting and a page turner.

It all fell apart for me because I kept waiting for an amazing twist that never happened (this must have been the small twist near the beginning of the book which, while cleverly done, wasn't the genius that I was expecting, so I assumed that there must be a better one coming towards the end to justify the hype. There wasn't). The book isn't given a proper ending and I was really hoping that all the various characters and storylines would end up intertwining, but no, this didn't happen either. I was left feeling cheated, as if I'd wasted my time on a 'story that never was'. A shame because it started promisingly and I really wanted to know more.

disconnected
I am pretty new to the genre of crime fiction, but it seems reasonable to expect a certain amount of suspense and a certain degree of plot - but this curious book has neither. Perhaps it is because I have read it out of sequence, or that i expected the arrest of Ed to lead to some sort of closure when in effect it is embedded in a random set of story lines that never really meet - even the cave scene presents no denouement, a rather pointless read, a bit like chewing gum. The characters and the setting arte Christie esque and deeply unconvincing.