The Risk of Darkness is the chilling third book in Susan Hill’s Detective Simon Serrailler crime series. Beginning with The Various Haunts of Men and continuing with The Pure in Heart, Hill’s series introduced readers to the charming English town of Lafferton and its citizens. The Risk of Darkness continues the story line of The Pure in Heart, with Detective Serrailler finally hunting down an elusive serial child abductor.

Continuing the successful execution of the first two books, Hill interweaves many different plotlines and masterfully commands them all in The Risk of Darkness. In addition to dealing with the frustratingly reticent child abductor, Detective Serrailler’s case load increases when a grieving widower seeks solace by holding hostage the young female priest trying to help him. Detective Serrailler must also once again balance his work life with his private life. In The Risk of Darkness, he faces the prospect of both his on-again, off-again girlfriend and his sister, who is a beloved local doctor and his main support system, leaving his life.

As with The Various Haunts of Men and The Pure in Heart, the well-written characters and the town of Lafferton itself help the story come alive. Small, seemingly unimportant pieces of the story are later revealed to the reader to be important plot points. In The Risk of Darkness, Susan Hill has crafted another well-paced, multilayered psychological thriller that shouldn’t be missed by fans of the series. ( )

I had a difficult time reading this novel because it was part of a series and I had not read the previous novel. However, the plot was decent and I may go back and reread it once I read the first novel. ( )

The main character in The Risk of Darkness is Simon Serrailler, a British police detective who is also an artist. He has a quirky family & interpersonal troubles & is likely to remind you of PD James' Adam Dalgleish. This is the third book in the series. I thought I hadn't read any of these, but realized as I was reading that I recognized Simon & found that I had read the first one, The Various Haunts of Men.

This is a slow, almost meditative book that I hesitate to call a mystery because, while there is crime in the book, the book itself isn't really about solving a crime or capturing a criminal or even understanding a criminal. Instead, this is book that weaves together the threads of stories that happen in the aftermath of a crime. It's as if Hill dropped a rock into a pond & rather than talking about the rock or the pond, she decided to talk about the ripples & the things they touch.

This is well-written & contemplative. If you're looking for a fast-paced thrill ride, this is not your book. Read this to peer all around the edges of a crime & to see its impact on many different lives. ( )

On the face of it, The Risk of Darkness is just another British police procedural, a genre which has its attractions for me when I just need to relax my brain. I landed in the middle of a series, which is always a bit disorienting, but the main characters got sketched in pretty quickly so I wasn't lost for long. There is the usual loner hero; they are generally reserved and private men, whose aura of unattainability and rugged, low-key sexiness has the women round them like flies, and Simon Serailler does not disappoint in that respect. One thing I found strange was that some of the other characters assumed he was gay, and I just couldn't find any explanation of that in this book. Was there something about his personal appearance and manner? All I learned of him was that he has white-blond hair, not generally an indicator of sexual orientation in my experience.

As I got deeper into this novel, I realized that the main character was, in fact, Death. This is not the usual murder-solved-in-the-third-to-last-chapter formula; without spoiling the plot for you, let me just say that you don't have to wait too long for the big catch of the novel. This particular criminal is just part of a dance of death that weaves through the plot, not all attributable to crime by any means. To those characters lucky enough to survive, death brings change and sometimes renewal.

All this weaving and bobbing makes the novel a little fragmented in places, as you're trying to follow several plot lines at once (this may be improved by reading the series from the beginning!). Once you see the unifying element of death, it's much easier to perceive everything falling into place. With short, punchy chapters, this novel reads briskly and easily, so I'm putting it in both the "beach read" and "good" categories. If you like your crime with a British flavor, check this one out of the library, but if your idea of good reading is P.D. James, you might find it a little lightweight. ( )

While I did enjoy this book, I found it to be less engaging that the others in this series. Simon Serailler is an interesting character but here we were just poking at his edges.....more character development, please.... ( )