The primary driver of the book is a drugs network penetrating a town outside the major cities – the so called county lines. An apparent heroin overdose draws the police’s attention to the problem more forcibly, and we also get the stories of a two young people who are drawn into the network as couriers and their suffering as a result. In addition, the stories of Simon himself and his sister Cat continue to progress. I thought the Gunter subplot was interesting. However, it did not at all interact with the main story - even the characters scarcely did. If this was supposed to be a red herring for the police officers, then it didn't work at all. As one officer pointed out pretty early on 'nothing suspicious here in relation to the kidnapping'. It is so obviously not linked, I can only conclude that it wasn't intended to be. I mean, did you need to hit a word count, Ms. Hill? What on earth is this subplot for? As far as I know, the character does not make an appearance again, which is even more bizarre. So I can't even blame it on irritating soap opera antics (ie. you have to read the next book to see the point). This time, elderly ladies are being bumped off in a particularly nasty way in their own homes, in crimes that seem awfully similar to an earlier case in Yorkshire. Serrailler's problem is that the killer has apparently vanished, leaving no traces behind him. Something's definitely rotten in the state of Special Operations... The boy's doctor Dad commits suicide. The 12 year old daughter runs away because her lawyer mom ignores her. We discover when the mom was pregnant with the daughter, all she wanted was a boy- who knows why- and didn't care about the girl. Two years later she had David and he was all she cared about. I’m a big Susan Hill fan; I love her creepy, shiver-inducing, but never gory, horror stories. I also love crime fiction, so many years ago I read an earlier book in her Simon Serrailler series. It was good; I enjoyed it. So I was very disappointed when A Change of Circumstance failed to live up to my expectations.

ABOUT 'A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE': It's mid-winter and a body is discovered in a flat just outside Lafferton. It's a drugs overdose but something doesn't feel right. The place is entirely empty. Damp walls, bare floorboards. Not even a bed.

The Simon Serrailler Crime Series in Order (13 Books)

Not a book for those who want every - or most - issues resolved (fixed, solved, finalized) in their mystery reading. Ms. Hill comes closest to writing fiction which is true-to-the-way-things-really-are, IMO. Police are often flummoxed, frustrated, exasperated and ultimately have to send certain cases to bed. This is...now in spoiler territory... I feel like I need to start by saying I've read all the books in this series and I continue to persevere with them despite enjoying them less and less. This book sees Simon Serailler involves in a heroin overdose that could be murder and an investigation into County Lines drug activity. Against this we also catch up with Cat and her family. In the usual style everyone has something alcoholic in their hand at every opportunity and there is plenty of pain and suffering of a character we have become invested in.

On the Face of It, broadcast 1975; published in Act 1, edited by David Self and Ray Speakman, London, Hutchinson, 1979 Initial investigations discover that the mysterious "sign" left on the body was the calling card of a suspect who was charged with several murders in the northwest of the country, tried but acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. All indications suggest that this person has simply vanished. Or is he right under their noses? Simon Serrailler is obliged to make delve deeper and scratch out answers, Iris is a bereaved elderly lady who is the next to disappear. She was seeking comfort in spiritual meetings before disappeared. All that said, this is still several cuts above the majority of contemporary crime novels. Serrailler is, frankly, often annoying in his approach to his personal life, which is realistic and quite deliberate by Hill and which I rather admire – although there is a hint of more settled things to come. So, although this may not be the finest of the series, it is still very good. This is listed as a mystery, but it's more of a domestic slice of life book about Simon and his family, and Brookie and his family, and Cat and all the DCs, and poor Mr Lionel, and the Chinese herbalist, and the junkie found dead of an OD/contaminated batch of heroin and a couple of animals and Olivia and whether Simon is going to get with Rachel and ugh.A tv adaptation of Serrailler's adventures is promised in the not too distant future. It'll probably star Rupert Penry-Jones (or a clone) and please those who miss Dalgleish's poetic detection (Serrailler, not surprisingly is a successful artist as well as start detective) or those who think Sophie Hannah's cliched and formulaic middle-class 'psychological thrillers' are set in the real world. The police struggle with the crime, since there were apparently no witnesses, and the crime itself devastates the Angus family, as much as it frightens the Lafferton residents, especially coming so soon on the heels of the serial killings in the first book. I first 'discovered' Susan Hill about this time last year when I read The Betrayal of Trust - the sixth in her Simon Serrailler Crime novels. (my review). I was really looking forward to her latest - A Question of Identity - and I wasn't disappointed! There are also a number of sub-plots that don't interact with each other at all. There's 'world building' and then there's just padding. Many developments amongst our faithful cast: Cat struggles with budget cuts at work and her kids struggle with growing up issues. Simon confronts a murderer of old women and pines on for Rachel. Something is amiss between Simon & Cat's dad Richard and his newish wife Judith.

Susan Hill does a brilliant job of creating the ‘other’ characters in this novel – Olivia, her mother, Brookie and his father, all becoming embroiled in this horrible criminal world whether they want to or not. I feel like the characters are believable and I could imagine the desperation of these kids’ parents. It felt almost too real at times! First, I didn't find the murder mystery in the book to be as strong as they usually are. It was relatively easy to figure out who was behind the murders early on.

Publication Order of Anthologies

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. This is an intriguing premise, all too believable. As ever with Hill’s novels, this is efficient and chilling. She introduces us to prospective villains, each seems a little questionable: but are we being unfair, reading something into signs that don’t exist, generalising, making assumptions? In parallel with the introduction of prospective villains, we are also shown prospective victims. I miss the brash young DS Nathan Coates. Ben Vanek just isn't as fun nor interesting a character and, cheerily, Nathan makes a brief appearance in this installment in the series. Love to continue to see more of him.