The Vows of Silence

Simon Serrailler 4

By: Susan Hill

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Gunmen are terrorising young women in the Cathedral town of Lafferton. What - if anything - links the apparently random murders? Is the marksman with a rifle the same person as the killer with a handgun?

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler falls back on well tried police methods such as questioning neighbours and house-to-house searches. Simon has been promoted and is now with the Serious Incident Flying Taskforce, but he is still at heart a loner and these chilly murders are on his home territory.

©2008 Long Barn Books Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Truly Engrossing!

I couldn't put it down. the story is Well written and it's a smooth read but the characterization makes it so much more. It is like visiting a world of people one knows. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

Still love Susan Hill's books!

If you could sum up The Vows of Silence in three words, what would they be?

Real surprise ending.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Cat is my favorite, even though I like Simon, even with his flaws.

Have you listened to any of Steven Pacey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Only hear him on Hill's books.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I really, really am put out with the fact that Hill kills off characters that we have come to know and care about. If I wanted doom and gloom, I'd read True Crime novels.

Any additional comments?

Even with the comment above, I still come back for more of Susan Hill's books!

Poor story

Disconnected characters who didn't make sense or impact the story. Not worth the time to listen to except it was preformed/read well.

I think I'm done

No criticism of the writing, only content. Too melodramatic, she has gone too far. Yes people die, life happens, but in the normal course of life there is usually small bright moments that sustain us. Everyone in this story is or should be contemplating death in a very very, yes, BLEAK way.

taut writing, narrator perfect - read in order!!!

Susan Hill is a new (to me :) )British author I've been listening to/reading. It's always a pleasure to find an author you really like who has been writing for awhile, so there is a treasure trove of sorts to plunder. (Phil Rickman, Deborah Crombie (albeit an american who writes British mysteries,) and Christopher Fowler are other audible mystery recommendations (to me) with a collection of brilliant novels to revel in days, weeks or however much time you have to devote to listening to books.) I am constantly listening again and again to the Rickman and Crombie novels as well as Fowler's. I expect to do so with Ms. Hill's Serrailler books.

I normally do not write recommendations but feel motivated to do so because the Simon Serrailler books need to be read in order. (Note Ms. Hill states otherwise on her web site, however, . . ,) The reason? The stories, plot and characters lives, are built upon in each new book. Where one plot starts in an earlier novel, it continues on and into the the following books. By reading Vows of Silence first, I was flung into a world of which its foundations were set forth in the earlier novels. I hope audible picks up the first novel and the most recent one.

As I read the books available on audible backwards in time I realized how much more I would have enjoyed them if read in order. But for me, it just means I will get to read them again, now in order, and appreciate the characters as there were truly intended to be.