A Change of Circumstance: Discover book 11 in the Simon Serrailler series

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Simon was not a shit to women in this novel – and kind of got a taste of his own medicine from Rachel ghosting him!

I have loved this series since the first one -The Various Haunts of Men- and as we’re now at number eleven the characters feel as comfortable as old slippers and like friends in their familiarity. Simon is so intriguing and continues to do so which takes some skill to maintain in a succession of books. He’s a terrific policeman, a good leader, he cares very deeply about his family and is a great uncle to Cat’s children but he’s very complex and currently extremely restless and at a crossroads in his life. I like the on/off relationship with Rachel Wyatt which adds to the realism. Cat and her family always add a good personal touch and she offers Simon the stability and family he needs. Cat’s role in the books has grown over the years and I do enjoy that. This is listed as a mystery, but it's more of a domestic slice of life book about Simon and his family, and Brookie and his family, and Cat and all the DCs, and poor Mr Lionel, and the Chinese herbalist, and the junkie found dead of an OD/contaminated batch of heroin and a couple of animals and Olivia and whether Simon is going to get with Rachel and ugh. I ended up skimming this - partly because the descriptions of recruitment of vulnerable children to county lines gangs was upsetting, and partly because I find Cat and Simon extremely annoying.

Review

I didn't enjoy reading about the 'county lines' set up to distribute drugs in the area. Although it makes for a good story involving two young local children and how they get embroiled, trapped in the enterprise, the grooming disturbs me far more than any outright violence would. I just hope that Hill's writing will strike a chord with some parent out there who may recognize what is going on with their own child. There are some harrowing moments in this unsparing novel, which shows how easily vulnerable youngsters can be exploited Joan Smith, Sunday Times It’s January and we’re deep in winters clutches in Lafferton. A heroin overdose of a young man in a rundown flat above a Chinese pharmacy in Starly leads Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler and his team into a county lines inquiry. Vulnerable children like eleven year old Brooklyn (Brookie) Roper are targeted and groomed. Meanwhile, Simon’s sister Cat Deerbon now married to Chief Constable Kieron Bright has her own issues with patients and personal family worries especially with her son Sam who is in medical training. All the ingredients for the perfect English crime novel are here Daily Mail (Praise for the Serrailler series) There is something about these Serrailler novels that is infinitely pleasant: they are comfortable reads, reassuring in some way. They are not truly crime or detective novels, in my opinion, more slices of domestic life or a soap opera in which the main character – Simon – is by coincidence a police officer. Consequently, the interest comes from his personal life and his family relations as much as – more than – it does from the detection.

The whole thing is, of course, extremely well written in that way Susan Hill has of crafting elegant, readable prose which never draws attention to itself but carries the reader along beautifully. The story, too, is a timely one and in many ways well done; the stories of the children involved and of the effects on their families are vivid and gripping, for example. However, I did find the policing aspect just a little clunky and preachy; at one point the Chief Constable gives a long and rather sententious speech to his officers, after which, one comments, “Didn’t have the chief down for a rallying-cry-before-battle sort of guy, did you?” Well, no I didn’t – and he was all the better for it. Serrailler himself sounds a bit like a politician with a pre-written answer at times, too, and I’ve come to expect better from Susan Hill. You carried every child for life, from the moment of birth." The death of a child is almost unendurable and the effects life-long. "He remembered her [the mother] as slight, thin, small-boned, but now she looked brittle as a bird, and old age lay in wait close by, though she was probably not far into her fifties." The novel is comforting like a soap opera in Simon’s family and his relationship with his sister, father and with Rachel are all continued. The following description made me laugh out loud, "He was bald, having shaved his head so often the hair had eventually abandoned hope."

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But I persevered. After all this is Simon Serrailler - the detective who has proved his value in earlier novels, who gives his all and cares about his staff and his family, and who can’t seem to work out his own personal life. Like most readers I’ve got to know his quirks and habits, almost as much as his family, and with this latest book I was hoping for some serious development in his personal life, especially after the - frankly rather drab offering - last book which left me wondering what the hell happened! I feel like I need to start by saying I've read all the books in this series and I continue to persevere with them despite enjoying them less and less. This book sees Simon Serailler involves in a heroin overdose that could be murder and an investigation into County Lines drug activity. Against this we also catch up with Cat and her family. In the usual style everyone has something alcoholic in their hand at every opportunity and there is plenty of pain and suffering of a character we have become invested in. In award-winning author Susan Hill’s electrifying A Change of Circumstance , Simon Serrailler finds himself in devastating new territory as a sophisticated drug network sets its sights on Lafferton. As a teacher in a rural community, County Lines has been one of the principal child welfare concerns for about five years and probably has been the central concern for policing for so long that Serrailler seems a fair way behind the times and out-of-date. Some of the conversations and briefings within the police felt a little preachy and forced and intrusive – it is a genuinely important topic for all of us as parents, educators and members of communities, but it did take me out of the narrative of the story.