The Betrayal of Trust
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3.7 • 9 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"Not all great novelists can write crime fiction but when one like Susan Hill does the result is stunning."
—Ruth Rendell
A cold case comes back to life in this sixth book in the highly successful Simon Serrailler detective series "eagerly awaited by all aficionados" (P.D. James). Freak weather and flash floods all over southern England. Lafferton is under water and a landslide on the Moor has closed the bypass. As the rain slowly drains away, a shallow grave--and a skeleton--are exposed; 20 years on, the remains of missing teenager Joanne Lowther have finally been uncovered. The case is re-opened and Simon Serrailler is called in as senior investigating officer. Joanne, an only child, had been on her way home from a friend's house that night. She was the daughter of a prominent local businessman, Sir John Lowther. Joanne's mother, unable to cope, killed herself 2 years after Joanne disappeared. Cold cases are always tough, and in this latest in the acclaimed series from Susan Hill, Serrailler is forced to confront a frustrating, distressing and complex situation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Quality-of-life issues figure prominently in Hill's thought-provoking sixth procedural featuring Chief Supt. Simon Serrailler (after 2010's The Shadows in the Street). Skeletal remains unearthed by a torrential rainstorm that floods the English city of Lafferton are quickly identified as those of Harriet Lowther, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who disappeared 16 years earlier after last being seen at a bus stop. Serrailler must conduct the subsequent cold case murder inquiry with limited staffing. As he grinds through old interview reports and seeks out living witnesses to Lowther's actions on the day she vanished, he meets a married woman whose husband is debilitated by Parkinson's. Meanwhile, a patient of his physician sister contemplates suicide on learning of a fatal diagnosis, and another local grapples with finding a suitable facility for a loved one subject to increasingly violent outbursts. Fully realized characters and efficient prose more than compensate for an unconvincing twist.
