The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill, an addictive series launch

Title: The Various Haunts of Men: A Simon Serrailler Mystery
Author: Susan Hill
Narrator: Steven Pacey
Publication: The Overlook Press, hardcover, first published in 2004.
Genre: Mystery
Setting: England

Description: People – and a dog – are disappearing without a trace in the fictional Cathedral town of Lafferton. After leaving an unhappy marriage in London, Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham is making a new life for herself at the CID division in Southern England, regaining her confidence and joining the local choir. Freya takes the report of a 53-year-old missing woman, Angela Harvey, very seriously and continues the investigation when her superiors say it is more likely she has merely left town, only to find other strange disappearances. Local doctor Cat Deerbon treated several of those missing and is concerned about a possible connection to alternative medicine practitioners she fears are charlatans or worse. Cat consults her brother, DCI Simon Serrailler, an attractive but aloof police detective who works with Freya. As he and Freya get closer to finding the killer, whose macabre reflections are interspersed with the narrative, they are inevitably putting themselves in danger.

My Impression: Do you like having at least one character to identify with or care about? There are certain crime novels that are too full of unpleasant characters, making it hard to mind when they get murdered, so I was intrigued by this British police procedural featuring Simon Serrailler in which there are many appealing individuals, beginning with Freya. She is an empathetic detective, which is appreciated by those reporting missing friends or coworkers – and is contrasted to at least one policewoman who is dismissive of a flatmate’s worry. While Freya is new to Lafferton she is settling in and has made some friends and achieved popularly by bringing half a dozen desserts to a reception hosted by Simon and Cat’s mother. All the Serraillers are doctors, except Simon, who is a talented artist when not policing, although his curmudgeonly father still resents his having rejected medicine as a career.

One of the victims left a clue behind: expensive cufflinks she bought for someone she had fallen in love with. Freya obtains an important clue by talking to the jeweler but as she develops a massive crush on Simon, she identifies with that missing woman and is even more determined to solve the mystery of her disappearance. Working closely with Nathan Coates, an irrepressible Detective Constable, she tries to find connections to other missing persons. Hill depicts even minor characters with care and detail, making the reader care about them (which is sneaky since some of them then get murdered!). The Serrailler family is complicated, with its share of secrets: Cat and Simon are triplets with a brother Ivo who lives in Australia; he is also a doctor, as is Cat’s husband. There is also a younger sister who is disabled and institutionalized. 

I was impressed by how skillfully the author wove these characters and the backdrop of the town together, leading to a terrifying denouement. I listened to about half this book on audio (great narrator) before I was too impatient to know what was going to happen and snatched the hardcover from the library. There are flashbacks interspersed with the narrative from the perspective of the killer and I found these distasteful but they are hard to avoid in an audiobook. I realize I must skim them when reading. However, I see why Hill did it this way: the moments when Freya’s detective work and the villain’s self-reflections come together are very powerful.  

Source: Library.  Hill is also the author of The Woman in Black: I saw the stage adaptation in London years ago and disliked it, and while I don't remember the details, I think my friend and I left before it was over!  Normally, that would have prevented me from reading more of her work.  However, someone must have recommended The Various Haunts of Men and I am glad I followed up.  I liked it so much I have already finished the sequel and requested the third from the library, ignoring other books I meant to read this week.  This is my fifteenth book for Carol's Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.