Realistic depiction of both the crime and medical issues raised in the story as well as of the daily and bigger issues faced by each of the characters. The only puzzle was whether Simon would make his mind up about the domestic affairs which seemed to be occupying his mind for far more time than finding any villains. 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! This is a somewhat uneven entry in what has become the Serrailler soap opera: some of the storylines have stultified, particularly the case with Cat and her family where tiny issues are given unwarrantable page space (Kieron's pulled ligament, the lost dog, Cat writing to the Health Secretary to complain about a single patient's treatment on a local hospital ward).

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Simon is so intriguing and continues to do so which takes some skill to maintain in a succession of books. But when the body of a 22-year-old drug addict is found in neighboring Starley, the case pulls Serrailler into the underbelly of an elaborate drug running operation that pushes narcotics out from the cities, into the suburbs, and right down to villages. This is the first book in the series I've read,but if the writing is like this in all of them - sometimes ending a chapter very abruptly, almost as if there's something that's been left out, or hopping between two or three heads without any break to help us figure out whose head we're in now - I won't be going back to book one, as I do with many other series, and I definitely won't be picking up/requesting the next one.

but as soon as I had it was like coming home to good friend and read within a day (being couped up unable to move helped). Hill has recently founded her own publishing company, Long Barn Books, which has published one work of fiction per year. 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. He has a supportive family of highly educated adults and he is arsing around like a teenager unable to make up his mind.

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You feel the parental pain and anger for the unscrupulous grooming of the vulnerable young and this part of the plot is both relevant and shockingly gritty. There's nothing new going on for him in Lafferton, but sometimes the familiar holds surprises, too . Small-time dealers are picked up outside the local secondary school, they're given a fine or suspended and away they go. At Barrs Hill she took A levels in English, French, History and Latin, proceeding to an English degree at King's College London.Cat, who seems to be working herself to the bone just as much as she did when she was an NHS GP, handily has a poor 'deserving' private client to focus on, whose care is funded by an anonymous donor. This is coupled with the reassurance that you're in safe hands with DCS Serrailler and Dr Deerbon - if anyone is going to even attempt to address the issues, they will.

A Change of Circumstance: Discover the million-copy A Change of Circumstance: Discover the million-copy

The drug dealing story line is vivid and scary; grief in the wake of divorce and suicide is sensitively and powerfully portrayed; parental concerns and struggles feel genuine (as far as I know - this deliberately child-free reader remains grateful for her wise decision decades ago.This was an uneven reading experience for me, and the pacing of the novel felt awkward and abrupt on occasion. 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. The small-time dealers picked up outside the local high school can’t or won’t turn in any valuable names, so they’re merely given a fine and the trail runs cold. I started this one thinking that it might be getting a little formulaic this time around, but Susan Hill pulled it out again.