The Vows of Silence

 

The Vows of Silence by Susan Hill

Simon Serrailler #4

2007 Chatto & Windus (first published in 2006)

Finished on August 22, 2023

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

We met the enigmatic and brooding Simon Serrailler in The Various Haunts of Men and got to know him better in The Pure in Heart and The Risk of Darkness. The Vows of Silence, the fourth crime novel featuring Chief Inspector Serrailler, is perhaps even more compulsive and convincing than its predecessors.

A gunman is terrorizing young women in the cathedral town of Laffterton. What, if anything, links the apparently random murders? Is the marksman with the rifle the same as the killer with the handgun? With the complexity and character study that earned raves for The Pure in Heart and the relentless pacing and plot twists of The Various Haunts of Men, The Vows of Silence is truly the work of a writer at the top of her form. 

The Vows of Silence may be my favorite thus far in Susan Hill's mystery series. I was kept guessing until the final chapters, in which a small hint confirmed my suspicions. Well-written mysteries keep me reading late in the night, and this fourth installment did just that. And yet it wasn't simply my curiosity about the identity of the killer, but the continuation of the evolving storyline of the Serrailler family. I won't divulge more, but I will say that I was moved to tears. I know I've said it repeatedly (both about Hill's and Deborah Crombie's mysteries), but I love getting to know the characters in these books; they're authentic and so likeable. I wish, once again, that someone would create a TV series of both of these women's books. 

A solid mystery. Highly recommend, but do read these in order!