The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill

The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill

Genre: Mystery / Crime Fiction
Series: #2 in the Simon Serrailler series
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 370
Challenges: None
Source: Purchased New


The Short Version:
British crime fiction that is about far more than the central crime with a lead character who has as many flaws as he does strengths.

Why I Read It:
I read the first book in the series last year after my bookseller friend recommended it. When the Detectives Around the World theme week came along it gave me a good reason to move this second in the series to the top of my TBR list.

The Book
DCI Simon Serrailler is in Venice as the book opens. Still struggling with the events that occurred at the end of The Various Haunts of Men, he is taking a much needed break and focusing on his artwork in a familiar and pleasant place. His holiday is interrupted by a call from his father informing him that his severely mentally and physically handicapped younger sister is seriously ill. When Simon returns to his home town of Lafferton, England he not only has to face his beloved sister’s illness, but he also finds himself investigating the baffling disappearance of a young boy.

The disappearance of nine year old David Angus takes its toll on not only on his family, but also on the police investigating it. At the same time a third storyline follows Andy Gunton’s return to Lafferton after five years in prison. Andy is determined to escape the patterns of his past and build a new life, but is hampered by being back in the same neighborhood and environment that led him to the mistakes that landed him in prison before he was twenty years old.

My Thoughts:
It’s hard for me to classify this as a classic mystery story. The disappearance of David Angus is only one of several main story lines and in fact doesn’t even happen until page 59. The book is about the investigation and the investigators, but it is also about the toll that such a tragedy and uncertainty can have on a family. The parts of the story that dealt with David’s parents and older sister were heart wrenching to read as their family disintegrated under the weight of not knowing what happened to David.

As much as that was agonizing to read, I also followed Andy Gunton’s story line with a feeling of hope that he would be able to avoid the lifestyle that led him to prison, but also with trepidation that somehow his storyline would intersect tragically with the missing boy’s.

The major portion of the book however was given to Simon Serrailler and his family. I’d said of the first book in this series that Simon was almost a peripheral character, and in this second book, the central crime is almost a peripheral storyline. This book brings together a lot of the missing background of Simon Serrailler and his complex relationships with both of his parents and even more the sister he is closest to (He and his sister, Cat are two of a set of triplets)

This is not by any means a hit the ground running non-stop kind of mystery story. This is a slow building network of story and layers that interconnect and while some reach conclusions don’t expect everything to be neatly wrapped up at the end of the book. It is well written crime fiction, but it is also so much more the story of Simon and the people and town of Lafferton.

I do know that I will not wait so long before reading the next book in the series.

Rating 4/5

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