The Pure in Heart is the second of Susan Hill's series featuring DCI Simon Serrailler. However, this is not a police procedural. It's a complex psychological drama cleverly supported by the framework of one.

Hill's characters are fully-formed humans, even those who only make a brief appearance. The DCI is grieving the brutal death of a colleague and potential love interest, Freya Graffham, which happened at the end of the previous novel, The Various Haunts of Men. He's worried about his profoundly disabled younger sister, at odds with his bullying father over Martha as with everything else. His other sister and best friend Cat Deerbon is days away from giving birth. Then a nine-year-old boy goes missing and despite all the efforts of Lafferton CID, no solid leads appear. Young DS Nathan Coates, who's worked hard to get away from Dulcie Housing Estate, and the rest of his colleagues exhaust themselves as they confront the reality that David is, in all probability, dead. Meanwhile, twenty-something Andy Gunton is released from prison, headed back to Dulcie, vowing never again to be behind bars. But his sister doesn't really want him around, his parole officer might as well be from another planet and his past seems determined to catch up with him.

David's family implodes following his disappearance. Simon and Cat's mother is hiding a terrible secret, and Simon's occasional lover, the smart, scented, successful red-haired Diana, is intruding into his private space, desperate with love that he cannot reciprocate.

The Pure in Heart has left me wanting much more from these characters. ( )

No. 2 in the Simon Serrailler series. Just as good as the first one. Hill continues to defy convention with her characters and situations, and I love the community of Lafferton as some love Three Pines (where I never settled in.)
Read in 2014 ( )

The central mystery is the kidnapping of a schoolboy. The main story seems to be about the personal troubles of Simon Serrailer in his relations with family and former girlfriend. Good portrayal of police procedures.

This is the second book in the series and follows Simon after several losses and the kidnapping of a 9 year old boy. I listened to the audio book and the narration was fantastic. ( )

The second Simon Serrailler mystery, with the focus rather more squarely on Serrailler as the main protagonist (but with a number of other excellent characters as well). Another good mystery, this one also got me excited to read the next in the series. ( )

This, like its predecessor in the series, is a genuine crossover literature, examples of which are all too rare. The police procedural aspect of the plot is convincing but the real focus is on the impact of the crime (and, more generally, of untimely death) on all involved. As a result a wider range of characters is examined more deeply than one would expect from a standard police procedural. This more than makes up for Hill's refusal to deliver the standard neat resolution of the plot. Although Hill's characters are examined closely at times, I find the depiction uneven in depth and not always seamlessly embedded in the narrative, leaving me slightly distanced at times. None the less a compelling read. 26 March 2018 ( )

Alright...I'm loving Simon Serrailler as much as I love Thomas Lynley, and THAT is saying a lot!!! ( )

The nature of death, grieving and hope are examined in this, the second Simon Serrailler novel. To give these books a label – thriller, crime novel, detective novel – is to underplay the complexity of the subject. It is an examination of human nature.
A nine-year boy waits by the garden gate for his lift to school, but is never seen again. A severely handicapped young woman dies. Both families struggle with grief, reacting in different ways, ways which cause tension within the family. And involved in the mix is a local man, an ex-con newly released from prison, struggling to stay straight, struggling with the prejudices of his family. Reading this book will make you examine your own prejudices, your attitude to death and dying, it will make you as ‘what would I do if…’
The small cathedral town of Lafferton is like an extra character in Susan Hill’s Serrailler novels. Surrounded by wooden hills and deep ravines, it is at once brooding and at the same time reassuring.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

Where I got the book: audiobook from Audible. ***SPOILER WARNING***

This second novel in the Simon Serrailler series is more loosely written than the first, a trend that continues through the other books I’ve read in this series. The police procedural—in this instance a case of child abduction—proceeds alongside the lives of the Serrailler/Deerbon families, a bit like flipping between a soap opera and a detective mystery on TV. In addition, Hill starts using a technique she often employs later, that of introducing a seemingly unrelated subplot that you can easily guess is going to tie into the mystery at some point. I’d read the next novel as a standalone a few years ago, so I knew the biggest reveal, but I still enjoyed listening to the story unfold in Steven Pacey’s well-paced narration.

For the first time, we see into Simon Serrailler’s head, and learn that he was in fact attracted to Freya Graffham, one of the main characters in the last novel. Her death seems to have precipitated Simon’s feelings about her to the point where he stops responding to longtime f**kbuddy Diana’s messages, the first of many instances of somewhat immature behavior on Simon’s part that start to show up in the series. We also learn that Simon is very fond of his younger sister Martha, who is severely disabled, and there’s a whole subplot with the staff at her care home that should go somewhere but doesn’t—it’s interesting because Hill is an interesting writer, but from the point of view of plotting it’s a serious loose end.

The abduction case is not so much of a procedural as a telling of how such events affect the victim’s family and the police officers trying to find the child. The novel concludes in a way that you could either find incredibly realistic or incredibly frustrating depending on how much you’ve decided you like the series, and also in a huge come-on for the next book.

I think most readers will see one or two of the twists in the plot coming from a little way off, although Hill always plants a red herring or two to pull you off the scent. The soap opera dominates in this episode of the series, so it’ll annoy you if you’re mostly looking for a mystery but keep you enthralled if you enjoy the Serrailler family and appreciate Hill’s inventiveness and realism with her minor characters. ( )

Second in Hill’s Simon Serailler series, is just as deep and complex as her first. Simon, on vacation in Italy, is called home to the bedside of his sister. In her 20s she has the mind of a baby, and has been ill and in a home all her life, but Si cares deeply for her and rushes home when it looks as if she’ll succumb to this latest illness.

He arrives home just as a 9 year old boy has gone missing.

As with the first mystery, Si and his family figure prominently and at times the mystery of the boy takes second place to the mystery of Si himself, and his complex and multifaceted family and their friends. We delve into what it means to love, how we love, how we view the world and how we learn to deal with the tragedies and horrors it holds for us. ( )

I suppose the mystery is always just a vehicle for us to examine questions like What binds us together as a society? Or as a family? Or what binds me together as a distinct personality? Hill, though, pretty decidedly subjugates the demands of genre to these bigger life issues. Her characters aren't quite up to the task of helping us think these through without the distraction of a compelling plot, though . . . they're just a bit too sketchy. But there's promise and this is a series . . . ( )

The Pure in Heart

This is a Simon Seruiler mystery, which means that aside from the particular mystery, it has the backdrop of Chief Superintendent Simon Seruiler, an artist detective with an attraction for and a reluctance to be committed to women, along with his sister, Cat, a doctor, and her family, and his father, mother, and later stepmother, along with various other characters who continue for varying lengths through the novels. The location is the cathedral town of Lafferton, in England, not tiny, but not too big. Simon is a likable and interesting character, despite his imperfections. He has strong emotions and connections with his family. His sister, Cat, is the heart of the extended family, and the one he goes to for comfort. Simon plays somewhat of a father role for his nephew, Sam. This backdrop is interesting in itself, and then, the extended family is often drawn into the particular mysteries as well, with lingering effects on them.

This particular mystery begins with the snatching of a little boy from in front of his home while waiting for a ride to school. In Portland, Oregon, where I live, I suspect almost anyone reading this book will have thoughts of Kyron Horman, who vanished a few years ago, either from school or between home and school, and still not found. In the novel, the little boy is David, nine years old, nicknamed Doodlebug by his mother. From time to time there is a selection in his voice, trying to talk or plead with the kidnapper. As he remains missing we see the effects on his family.

Around the central theme of a child missing, there are other dramas. One of them centers on Andy Guntan, just released from prison after serving time for an unintended murder during a robbery, and trying to create a life without resorting to crime again.

I highly recommend this book and the whole series. ( )

When nine-year-old David Angus goes missing while waiting at his own front gate for a ride to school it sets off a chain of events that seem to rock the world of DCI Simon Serrailler. He gets caught up in the hunt for David while dealing with the illness of his younger sister, Martha, who is profoundly handicapped, and also recovering from the death of Freya (see The Various Haunts of Men, her first book in this series).

Like the first book there are no easy answers to the *why* of crimes like murder and kidnapping. There are several sub-stories going on here, Simon's sister Cat is not working as she comes closer to delivering her son, a young ex-con named Andy is caught up in a new world after six years on the inside, Cat's friend Karin is recovering from cancer and dealt a personal blow so needs to cope with her own crisis, and the Serrailler parents are dealing with each other and the tragedy of Martha. Through it all the kidnapping of David is affecting everyone but his own family most severely.

Hill is a wonderful writer who manages to pull you along in the story even when tackling tough issues like murder and kidnapping.

I'm glad there are more books in the series to read. ( )

My blog post about this book is at this link. ( )

A bang-up sequel to a bang-up first in series (The Various Haunts of Men). I am THIS close to ordering a copy of the third and fourth in the series from England. Hill breaks every rule in the genre to brilliant effect. Brava. ( )

In the Cathedral town of Lafferton, England it’s about a year after the events of the first book in this series, [b:The Various Haunts of Men|37040|The Various Haunts of Men (Simon Serrailler, #1)|Susan Hill|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168765623s/37040.jpg|2059639]. Several characters are still dealing with the fallout of that book’s rather shocking ending including DCI Simon Serailler who is on a sketching holiday in Venice. He’s called home because his younger sister Martha, who is mentally and physically handicapped, has been taken to hospital with pneumonia and might die. Serailler returns to work earlier than planned to head the investigation into the kidnapping of a young boy, David Angus, from outside of his home.

One of my observations about the first novel was that calling it a Simon Serailler story was bordering on false advertising given his relatively limited appearances. The same cannot be said of The Pure in Heart which is very much Simon’s story. His love of his younger sister and the rest of his family, his frustration at the lack of progress in finding the missing boy, his failure to communicate maturely with his former lover all play out during this novel and paint a far more realistic picture than the rather one-dimensional hero-figure of the first book. Although he turned out to have some very human foibles and some not very agreeable qualities I liked Simon a lot more in this book.

However The Pure in Heart isn’t all about Simon and the kidnapping. There is a detailed exploration of several people, including some who have nothing much to do with the case at all. There is a particularly gripping, if extraordinarily sad, depiction of the effect of David’s disappearance on his family which seemed so realistic I almost felt guilty for being such a voyeur into someone else’s tragedy. Simon’s family feature heavily again and there are other threads including fascinating one focusing on a man released from prison and struggling to live a ’straight’ life.

I’ve spent some time trying to work out why I enjoy these books because, on the face of it, they’re not ‘my kind of thing’ as they spend so much time focussing on people not relevant to the main story. But when I was mentally comparing The Pure in Heart to other books I’ve read I realised it was similar in intent to Elizabeth George’s [b:Careless in Red|2017717|Careless in Red (Inspector Lynley #15)|Elizabeth George|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1231962566s/2017717.jpg|2702007] but far better executed (and almost exactly half the length!). Whereas Careless had oodles of irrelevant tangents and tried to give a cast of a couple of dozen characters interesting back stories, The Pure in Heart seemed to know just when enough was enough on both counts and drew an absorbing picture of the town and its people without once making me wish for it all to hurry up and be over.

If you want a book that rollicks along at a cracking pace I suggest you look elsewhere. And if you don’t like loose ends you might also want to skip this book. But if a tale that unfolds in intricate, captivating layers and provokes much thought about what you would do in the face of modern moral dilemmas sounds like your kind of thing then read The Pure in Heart If you happen to enjoy audio books I heartily recommend this version narrated by Steven Pacey who is fast becoming one of my favourite narrators (he was responsible for one of my top ten reads of last year, Tom Rob Smith’s [b:Child 44|2161733|Child 44|Tom Rob Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255690645s/2161733.jpg|2167258]). ( )

[The Pure in Heart] by Susan Hill (2006, UK)

The Pure in Heart is the second installment of Susan Hill's crime series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler. I read her first book back in 2005 and this second book has been sitting on my shelf since 2006. One might ask why and I would not have an answer for them. Since obtaining this 2nd book though, I have read five or six other works by Hill, who seems to be drawn more often than not to the psychological, and often dark, including Gothic and ghost stories.

I think it's safe to say that Susan Hill doesn't write the typical police procedural. She's exploring something somewhat different than the average crime writer. What I remember of the first installment is that she choose to unveil her detective to the reader through the viewpoints of three women in his life, and that she has no qualms killing off someone we as readers might have developed an attachment to.

I had never thought of writing crime novels because to me those had always meant ‘detective stories’ and although I enjoyed reading them, I knew I would be no good at the problem-solving sort of story with a series of dropped clues and a surprise ending. But the crime novel has become a serious literary genre over the last few decades and I realised that it presented the sort of challenge I wanted.

My aim was to look at issues in the world around me and contemporary life – which I have not done in my novels before. I also wanted to know not ‘who dunnit’ but much more importantly, WHY ? What motivates a criminal ? Why does someone murder and perhaps not only once ? (excerpt, read the rest here

I also think it's safe to say that one should expect Hill to muck about with formula, and mess with the reader's head a bit. I remember the first installment being a satisfying crime novel, intriguingly different and yet, I also felt I'd been run over by small truck. After this second book it felt like I had been not only watching, but performing in some sort of emotional circus. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it.

Simon is the only policeman in a family of doctors. He's a sensitive sort, an artist in his spare time (reminiscent of P.D.James's poet detective, Adam Dalgleish), but incredibly screwed up when it comes to women. So, yes, he's still a bachelor, but not a loner because he has a close family (he is one of triplets, btw). The personal and the professional have to be juggled at the same time when Simon is called home from his Venice holiday because his younger sister, who has the mind of an infant, is dying. She rallies just as Simon is called in to work when a young boy goes missing. I think I'll leave the synopsis at that. Enjoy the ride.

PS: I, of course, ran out and picked up the 3rd installment but I may wait a while to read it, though maybe not six years. ( )

Six-word review: The crime is not the mystery.

Extended review:

Fie. Either this author doesn't play fair or the marketers, promoters, and cover blurb writers are misrepresenting her work.

This second novel in the series billed as "Simon Serrailler mysteries" shows us a good deal more of the difficult, elusive character of Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler than did the first installment, in which he was little more than a peripheral presence. But here again we don't see him solving any crimes. I'm starting to wonder if we ever will.

Structured similarly to the first novel of the series, this book unfolds episodically from the points of view of several characters each in their turn, not always giving any indication as to which of them is important or why. I almost said "important to the plot," except that as before there isn't much of a plot.

There's nothing wrong with a character-driven story, and this one is certainly that. But again, a novel billed as a mystery and featuring police detectives as principal characters gives rise to certain expectations. If I'm disappointed in the conclusion, the author may not be at fault, but I must ask: is the genre label correctly applied?

If I say much more, I will be guilty of publishing spoilers.

So I'll just add that my appetite for continuing with the series has diminished. Perhaps my curiosity about the development of the Serrailler character himself will be enough to lure me on, and perhaps it won't. If I continue, however, it will be without my usual confidence that the conventional promises will be fulfilled. ( )

The second book in the Simon Serrailler series (the first book was The Various Haunts of Men), The Pure In Heart takes place just a few months after the events of the earlier book, which ended with a huge shocker that left me reeling. For this reason, I wouldn’t read this book without having read the first book. These are not really “horror” books but they do deal with the darker aspects of life.

THE BASIC STORY

DCI Simon Serrailler cuts short his trip to Venice to return home to the cathedral village of Lafferton when he receives news that his sister Martha is on death’s door. Upon his return, Simon is thrust into a case that requires his immediate attention: the disappearance of a boy named David. Intertwined with the Serrailler family drama and David’s disappearance is the story of a man recently released from prison who is finding is difficult to go straight.

MY THOUGHTS

Like the first book, this is really more about the village and citizens of Lafferton than it is about Simon Serrailler (thought we do get to know this enigmatic character a bit more than we did in the first book, where he barely made an appearance). The plot’s main focus is the disappearance of the boy and how it wreaks havoc on his family. I thought this aspect of the story was well done. In the face of an unthinkable tragedy, the family begins to self-destruct rather than finding strength in each other. In addition, the way that Hill describes David’s fate left me feeling like I had swallowed a stone.

The story about the ex-con who is trying to go straight was less compelling to me, but I suspect that Hill might be setting things up for the next book. However, it was easy to see how someone determined to do right might find themselves veering off-track and finding the “real world” a less attractive alternative than prison.

Like the first book, the narrator changes from chapter to chapter. I love this aspect of Hill’s writing, and I never knew where she might take us. (She is not afraid to kill off characters!) In addition, there were some developments at the end of this book that seemed like they were laying the groundwork for future stories. I do plan on continuing on with the third book, The Risk of Darkness, and seeing how things play out.

The bottom line is that if you are looking for a well-written and multi-layered crime novel that is more than just “who done it,” this series would be very satisfying. ( )

A gripping and unusual procedural focusing more on the characters’ complex lives than the crimes. The disappearance of a small boy disorders the lives of many people. DCI Simon Serrailler (The Various Haunts of Man, 2007, etc.) is recalled from his Venetian sketching holiday by his father. His younger sister Martha, physically and mentally challenged from birth, is dying. Martha recovers only to die suddenly in her sleep, leaving Simon bereft. His attention shifts when a young boy goes missing while waiting for his ride to school. The whole force work night and day searching for a lead. The stresses on artistic, introspective Simon, who’s obviously modeled on Adam Dalgleish, mount as his team continues to search for the boy they fear is dead while pursuing their other cases. Summary BPL

Exposition is slow in this new-to-me Simon Serailler series. The story (#2) unfolds in character arcs much like a crime investigation TV show and as many of the key characters are related either by blood or marriage, there is considerable and intentional focus on familial relationships. Action is scarce, particularly at the conclusion. More cannot be said without spoiling the end of The Pure in Heart.

Simon Serailler compels the reader��s interest without actually doing much. Ms Hill draws his inner life in wonderful detail; a troubled, talented and complex man who happens to be a police detective.

6.5 out of 10. Took marks off for the unsatisfying nature of the conclusion. Recommended to readers who prefer their mysteries character-driven by attractive, intellectual English detectives. ( )

Second in the Simon Serrailler series. This author writes beautifully and is a marvellous storyteller.

Back Cover Blurb:
Simon Serrailler is on a painting holiday in Venice, trying to come to terms with the brutal murder of a young woman who had been in love with him. But soon a telephone call summons him home. He has family problems to face - and the stress and daily grind of running a busy police station.
A little boy is snatched as he stands with his satchel at the gate of his home, waiting for his lift to school. A severely handicapped young woman hovers between life and death. An ex-con finds it impossible to go straight....
People in Lafferton find that terror and evil are in their very midst..... ( )

If you like neat, clean, tied-up-with-a-bow resolutions to your crime novels, then this one is not for you. The Pure in Heart is the second in the series featuring Simon Serrailler, and like the first (The Various Haunts of Men), it’s a well-written and thought-provoking read. I found it a bit slow and ponderous for the first 50 pages or so, but after that, I was pulled into the story – actually stories, as there are several parallel plot lines. What Hill does so well, and differently from a lot of crime writers, is explore the effect of tragedy on those left behind. That is where her concern lies, not in the actual whodunit.
Her character development is organic and never forced, and she beautifully renders a sense of place. I found her writing to be exquisite in places:

There had been a place she had kept secure, a place in which there had been a small bright patch of warmth and hope into which she had been able to retreat. No one else knew that it was there but she had relied on it because in there was the truth, that David was alive and well and would come home. Alan had sent a blade slicing through the wall and all the light and brightness and hope had leaked out and turned black, a pool of darkening blood on a floor. The place was empty now, the air foul and contaminating. He had killed the last resource she had. Now there was no hope or comfort.” (page 218)

While there were no easy resolutions to any of the multiple storylines, I finished the book with a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. ( )

I like Susan Hill's take on crime thrillers; I think she reflects the frustrations and hard slog of running a case well. I usually like the characterisations and plot development more, but found this one a bit laboured, hence four stars rather than five. I’m sure that this story-line has further to go, and I have the next three books of the series waiting to be read. Beautifully written as always. ( )

First Line: At first light the mist was soft and smoky over the lagoon and it was cold enough for Simon Serrailler to be glad of his heavy donkey jacket.

Still brooding over the death of a fellow officer the previous year, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler is on holiday in his beloved Venice, Italy, to bury himself in his art. Instead, he receives a phone call from his father telling him that if he wants to see his younger sister alive, he'd best get on a plane now.

Simon does, but the scare turns out to be a false alarm. He briefly considers going back to Venice, but then nine-year-old David Angus disappears while waiting for his ride to school, and Serrailler knows he must stay.

There are several subplots going in The Pure in Heart: the young boy's abduction, Simon being stalked by an ex-girlfriend, a young man just released from prison who finds out how hard it is to stay on the straight and narrow, the deteriorating health of Simon's sister... but they are all skillfully interwoven and Hill kept me turning the pages with her fluid, visual writing style and the depth of her characterizations.

When I read the first book in the series, The Various Haunts of Men, I lamented that there was very little of Simon Serrailler in what was billed as a Simon Serrailler mystery. There is no lack of him in this book, and I can see now that the first book sets the series up brilliantly.

Hill has a marvelous gift for making characters and situations come alive. I felt ex-con Andy Gunton's frustration at trying to find a decent job that he actually liked and his intense dislike of being forced to stay with his grudging sister. I felt how the members of Simon's family were being pulled apart by the health of the youngest sibling and the age-old question of how a severely handicapped person can have quality of life.

The subplot that had the tightest hold on me as a reader was that of the abducted boy, David Angus. Hill shows in agonizing detail how a good marriage can be pulled apart at the seams by such an overwhelming tragedy. Hill kept my focus on the boy by interspersing short chapters that were David trying to talk with his abductor. Those chapters put me in that little boy's shoes, and they were also a lifeline: as long as those little italicized chapters appeared, I knew David was still alive. That was a brilliant device to make the reader every bit as emotionally involved as all the characters in the book who were so desperately searching.

Is it necessary to read The Various Haunts of Men before picking up The Pure in Heart? No. Hill provides enough backstory to keep the reader from being confused but not so much that it bogs down the pacing of the story.

It may not be necessary to read the first book in the series before you read the second, but one thing should be necessary: that all of you who love beautifully written and plotted mysteries filled with characters who live and breathe on the page should get to know Simon Serrailler. ( )

I liked the first in this series, but completely loved this second book.

You'll be disappointed if you like your crime novels to get everything resolved and tied up neatly by the end; this is in many ways more of a family saga that happens to feature a policeman and his work. I like it that way, it goes off at all kinds of tangents with minor characters which I found a really entertaining read. I could barely put it down, not because it's a page-turning thriller but because it's well written, interesting and I always wanted to know what happened next to the characters, even the nasty seeming ones.

I'm not really sure to be honest why they bill them as 'Simon Serrailler' books as he's only really one of the cast, a central character here more than in the first book but not the only one. ( )