The Various Haunts of Men

[The Various Haunts of Men] - Susan Hill - (England)
Genera: Crime/Police procedural
Narrator: Steven Pacey
4★
A woman vanishes in the fog up on "the Hill", an area locally known for its tranquility and peace. The police are not alarmed; people usually disappear for their own reasons. But when a young girl, an old man, and even a dog disappear, no one can deny that something untoward is happening in this quiet town. Young policewoman Freya Graffham is assigned to the case; she's new to the job, compassionate, inquisitive, and dedicated. She and the enigmatic detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler have the task of unraveling the mystery behind this gruesome sequence of events.

This is the first in a series by Susan Hill, who is best show more known for her gothic, and chilling suspense novels. My favorite will always be [The Woman in Black]. I will admit to being a bit annoyed that this book really had nothing to do with Simon Serrailler. He was a secondary character through the entire story. Another thing that more than annoyed this animal lover was that they killed the dog! Seriously...was that really necessary to the story? The main character made some choices that were flat out idiocy. I understand that people do stupid things sometimes, but this woman, Freya Graffham, needed a 'handler". I found that I was actually continuing to read in order to see for her next "I'm going to get myself killed" choice. Before I knew it, I was at the end of the book, and by the grace of God and Susan Hill's pen...she was still alive...so all's well that ends well. I have to give Ms. Hill credit that she didn't write a "happy ever after ending".... nor did she write crappy dialogue trying to force readers into believing or disbelieving anything about her characters. She let the reader use their "God -given" brain to decide for themselves. 4 Stars and I'll continue to read this author. show less

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
In over fifty years of book reading this is one of the most unusual perhaps even unique. A serial killer Police procedural with no gruesome murders in fact virtually no violence at all. Forty percent into the book and DCI Simon Serrailler of which this is the first in the series, appeared in less than a paragraph and plays a minor part throughout, the brilliant DS Freya Graffham is the star of the show, and later the story brought tears to this grumpy Yorkshire mans eyes. Yet engaging and surprisingly totally gripping from first to last page. A beautifully written character driven story with totally show more believable characters who make you feel a part of the book. Absorbing captivating clever and chilling in parts.
Completely recommended. show less

I am conflicted.

On the one hand, I found the characters compelling, and I thought the POV changes worked well. I also really enjoyed the setting of the town, and the thoughtful discussion of alternative therapies. As someone who enjoys PD James, I was excited to settle in with a new DI and his crew, and the crew is very appealing. It was a great read.

On the other hand **big spoiler** I HATE authors who unexpectedly kill off main characters. I am still harboring a grudge against Elizabeth George for exactly that behavior, so the part where the main character of the book (not Simon Serrailler, not at all) is murdered? Kinda killed it for me. I get that the trope of new young inspector comes to town, is female, is great at her job and show more therefore, without exception will become the target of a serial killer is done to death. I get why actually killing that character off makes an interesting statement on mysteries in general. But I really liked Freya, and Simon basically wasn't in this book, so I found it upsetting. I have no idea what to expect of the continuing series -- I may or may not stick with it. Also, I would very much have liked some of the other plot threads to be cleanly wrapped up -- did anything further happen with the psychic surgeon? What happened with Karin's diagnosis? Realistically vague, but I don't read these kinds of mysteries for realism, I read them for satisfying conclusions, and this one did not offer anything as comforting as that. show less

First in a series. A mystery, with a whole cast of wonderful characters; women gone missing without a trace; a colony of "alternative" healers, legitimate and otherwise; a mysterious pathological "pathologist"; a small cathedral town with its own minor set of "stones" on the Hill.... It grabbed me and kept me reading much like the Tana French Dublin murder squad series, or the Jackson Brodie books. But Hill does French and Atkinson one better, in a gutsy way I can't reveal without spoiling the story. Billed as the first Simon Serrailler mystery, it's really more about one of his squad, Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham, from whose point of view much of the story is told. There are other POV's as well, but she comes across as the primary show more character here. Serrailler is quite a minor player, apart from the fact that Freya falls hard for him and struggles with what to do about that. I loved it. show less

Excellent, absorbing police procedural/thriller about several missing people, possibly shady New Age practitioners, and the mind of a serial killer. Hill feeds the reader plenty of clues about the identity of the villain and doesn't make the mistake of many authors of trying to sustain the mystery past the point of plausibility; at the appropriate point, the story changes focus from "whodunnit?" to "how will they catch him?" The various characters are all vividly sketched (although in the end there are many unanswered questions about the killer) and add to the sense of an interlocking community in the charming town of Lafferton. The final murder is a shock and genuinely sad because you've come to care for the character so much.

This is Book One of the mystery series by U.K. author Susan Hill involving Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler and set in fictional Lafferton, a Cathedral city in the South of England.

In The Various Haunts of Men, Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham has come to work in Lafferton to escape the stress of life in London. She takes an immediate liking to her DCI Serrailler; more than that, she finds herself subject to a coup de foudre, or the thunderbolt of love at first sight.

In Lafferton, a number of people have gone missing, and DS Graffham has a bad feeling about it. She relies on her instincts quite a bit, and doesn’t think these people – particularly the women – just decided to disappear.

Simultaneously, the police are also show more investigating an influx of alternative healers in nearby Starly. Simon’s family is involved in the investigation since most of them are doctors, and concerned about possible abuse of patients. Some of the missing had been to Starly – could there be any connection?

Discussion: This was a most interesting mystery because, while keeping up a very high level of apprehension over the disappearances, the author simultaneously interjects intelligent discussions on the pros and cons of alternative medical treatments. I was surprised by the objective presentation of both sides of the argument. The medical theme also allows the author to muse on pain, disease, death, loneliness, and acceptance, with a sophisticated level of empathetic insight.

I was also surprised by the thoughtful and believable characterizations, and the startling courage of the author in crafting the outcome of this book. Unlike so many books in which the characters escape from improbable events – so that you want to throw up your hands in disgust - this author resists the attachment she and her audience might be feeling for her characters in favor of realism.

I particularly liked the author’s ability to map experience and emotions:

"These are the times you remember until you die, these ordinary, unplanned, astonishing, joyful things, these spur-of-the-moment, unexpected things. You remember every word, every gesture, the colour of the tablecloths in the restaurant and the smell of the liquid soap in the cloakroom, so that for the rest of your life, when you smell it again, you are there and you are the person you were, on that day, at that time, thinking what you thought, feeling as you did. These are the times.”

As a mystery, this book is similar to works by P.D. James, Elizabeth George and their ilk. I don’t agree that they strictly belong in the category of “cozy” mystery, yet they aren’t exactly on the suspense/thriller end of the spectrum either. One gets many details of the city, surrounding countryside, living spaces, and off-duty activities. There are frequent breaks in the action for a spot of tea and biscuits. Crimes, no matter how gruesome, are described with as much decorum as possible under the circumstances. But the tension stays palpable. Perhaps these mysteries could be called “cozy thrillers.” While sharing some of the preoccupations of cozies, they are more complex and darker, and certainly more riveting.

Evaluation: This is a well-written book in which the mystery is resolved around two-thirds of the way through, but the suspense continues to build nevertheless, right until the end. There is much more to think about with this book than “who done it.”

Freya Graffham is a lovely character: so flawed and human yet very appealing, perhaps even because of her vulnerability. Simon is mostly absent, but central in the characters minds, much as Adam Dalgliesh sometimes is for P.D. James. Karin, a friend of Simon’s family who has contracted cancer just when her life has gotten on track, is a poignant and courageous character whose struggles with adjustment are heart-wrenching.

This book is well worth reading. show less

After reading four other books in this series, I finally went back to read the first. It is outstanding, and the whole series is outstanding. One curious thing about this book is Hill's choice to kill off the protagonist of the story, Freya Graffham, who in a lot of ways is a far better lead character than Simon. I'm thinking that Hill wants to keep Simon mysterious and the relationship with Freya, intelligent and intuitive as she is, would inevitably have stripped away a lot of that mystery. In the later novels the memory of Freya plays powerfully, but she seems to be a sad loss to the series now I've spent some time in her head. Hill shoots for a lot more than creating a good mystery, though she (as here) usually accomplishes this. show more Her real interest is the characters here, and the action is really just a mechanism through which she can put them through their paces. She's very observant, and creates characters who have something to tell us about life. One interesting difference between Hill's books and the usual mystery series is that the murderers in these books are the *least* interesting people in them--they're rather pathetically two-dimensional. Broken people. And that seems right, too. show less