down. This book is rather longpages, It opens with what is evidently a transcription of of a recording, It reads like a letter from someone to another person, Theses transcriptions are interspersed with events in the small town of Lafferton, England, from the perspective of various inhabitants,
Although the book is bookin the Simon Serrailler series, he is not the main character, DS Freya Graffham is actually the central character, She takes a missing person report from Carol Ashton, Carol is Angela Randall's supervisor at a nursing home, Angela has
not reported for work fordays,
Carol says that Angela is her most reliable employee, When Freya visits Angela's home, she suspects that something is wrong, When more peolpe go missing, her superiors take her more seriously,
They don't know it, but there is a serial killer in town, who does not make his appearance untilpages into the book.
This book is as much a character study of life in small town England as it is a mystery, I prefer my mysteries to be a little faster moving than this book, It took medays to read it,
However, if you like cozy mysteries with no graphic violence and no foul language, then you may like this book,
One quote: "A nut feeder hung at the window from which blue tits came to eat with little, darting movements and bright watchful eyes, before flitting off again.
The garden was well tended, with a rookery down which a small waterfall ran into a pool, A contented life, Freya thought, the old fashioned life still lived by so many people up and down the country in ordinary places.
. . "
I received this book in an exchange with my GR friend Theresa, I loved Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, and so I was excited to read this first book in a series of hers.
I will concede that Susan Hill is an excellent writer, and as a mystery, this book was indeed well written, However, I ended up feeling sucker punched by the ending, not something that endears a book to me, Also, it's a Simon Serrailler series, but he was more of a minor, inconsequential character in this story, I was quite taken with the character of Freya Graffham, and I actually would have loved a series about her rather than the flat Simon Serrailler character.
I felt that the author betrayed me by gaining my investment in certain characters of this story and then knocking the legs out from under me with her insistence that anything less than a tragically unhappy ending would be beneath her.
The killer's last victim seemed to be a gratuitous throwin of the author wanting to shock us one last time, I don't often react angrily to a book, but this one just made me mad at the end, I doubt that I will pick up the next in the series, An enjoyable summer read. Oh, I do enjoy the conceit of the English country novel, Its second only to the Agatha Christie country house detective, In these stories, its not the policework or even the mystery that matters so much as the effect of the crimes on the collective psyche of the town in which they take place.
Lafferton, the setting of The Various Haunts of Men is a cathedral town, Simon Serrailler describes it as "a jumped up market town", just big enough that not everyone knows everyone else, but the degrees of separation must be pretty close.
Its the kind of community that would be shocked by a murder, Except a murder isnt what they get here: instead, three women and a man, though his disappearance apparently isnt noticed go missing over the span of several weeks.
The police arent even certain foul play is involved until very far into the bookbut thanks to our privileged position, we know were dealing with a serial killer obsessed with conducting post mortems.
Susan Hill balances the relationships of Laffertons inhabitants with monologues and meditations by the serial killer, As a result, we get to know the antagonist well, She exposes the various traumas and events that triggered his latent urges, Gradually, she connects the dots until his identity is obvious, Whether one guesses the killers identity before its revelation or not, the actual identity is a betrayal of sorts, But its nothing next to the final twist in the plot,
One question I ponder whenever Im reading a mystery novel is whether a good mystery must leave enough clues for the reader to solve it, if they are able.
I would say no although no longer my favourites, Sherlock Holmes has always held a special place in my heartand, lets face it, the stories are still popular and captivatingdespite the fact that in almost every story, Holmes deductions rely on obscure clues that only he has noticed and connected.
Yet I do enjoy books where it is at least theoretically possible for the reader to solve the murder, even if I dont usually manage to do so.
I happened to uncover the killer in this book before Hill revealed it, and I dont consider that a flaw in the books design, though I am rather surprised by myself.
As for the big twist, which involves the protagonist, Freya Graffham, I saw that coming as well albeit not as early as I saw the killers identity.
I hoped I was wrong, and briefly following the events, I thought Hill might have faked me out, In the end, though, she indeed carried through, Its a decision that no doubt alienates just as many readers as it captivates, Good. Dont do anything by halves,
These are all just party tricks, though, The substance of The Various Haunts of Men is Hills rich portrayal of the relationships between the main and minor characters.
She builds up a network of friends and acquaintances of each of the victims, Everyone seems to know Cat Deerbon, even if she isnt their GP, and her budding concern over the rise of unregulated "complementary therapists" proves to be a major plot point.
Hence, while someone like Karin McCafferty isnt directly related to the mystery part of the novel, her involvement is an opportunity for Hill to demonstrate how Cat navigates the difficult waters of doctorpatient counsel.
I found this part of the book very interesting, and its one of the reasons I got hooked,
Freyas unrequited love for Simon was less interesting, I felt very sorry for Freya, because she is headoverheels, and I couldnt help but think that, inevitably, Simon was going to end up hurting her.
However, this aspect of the book is very onesided, For a novel that is apparently the first in Simons series, he is just barely a main character, and the narrator certainly keeps Simons cards close to his chest.
Most of what we know about Simon comes instead from what others, particularly his sister, divulge about him to Freya,
This penchant for telling rather than showing is perhaps the flaw to The Various Haunts of Men that haunts me.
Hill proves herself skilled in crafting intricate webs of characters and circumstance, creating a potent mystery that sticks with the reader, Her descriptions leave something to be desired, sometimes, and she can go overboard with the exposition when her narrator gets on a roll.
Fortunately, its easy enough to overlook this because of the style of the book, in which such lengthy depictions only contribute further to the unhurried, small town atmosphere that Hill is trying to create.
This is not a thriller, and while it involves murders, it is barely even a murder mystery to the characters within the story.
For them it is simply a case of missing persons, with the reality that there is a serial killer among them only revealed very close to the end.
From the readers betterinformed perspective, though, this only heightens the tension, As the investigation becomes more complex, the killer starts to panic, to forget his rules that were supposed to set him apart from killers past.
Its interesting watching the killer unravel, Meanwhile, the other characters show themselves committed to their causeswhether its finding the killer or protecting innocents from being exploited by "psychic surgeons" and other quacks.
The Various Haunts of Men is an entertaining and enthralling book, Hill captures the charm of the stereotypical small English town and then plunges it into the dark abyss of the tortured human psyche.
Its reassuring and disturbing at the same time, with warm and sympathetic characters, In short, its exactly what I want in a nice and juicy mystery,
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