A Simon Serrailler novel AIBU

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This could be very niche but I've just started "the betrayal of trust" and AIBU to think it's really out of order that a certain someone is using their lodger as free childcare?

As an aside I've been roaring through these on audible and I'm really enjoying them even though obviously you have to look past the amount of murders that coincidentally happen in one town and also the sheer bourgeoisieness of the main characters does make my eyes roll sometimes.

Ooh, I'd forgotten the Simon Serrailler novels, thank you for the reminder! Time for a re-read. (I can't comment on The betrayal of trust, I can't remember that one.) Try this in Books, you might get more replies.

Is this a true story?

I had forgotten them too. May revisit, got a bit tired of the main character always mooching around his mothers Aga.

I loved these books until one later novel when I went massively off the main character and just couldn't bring myself to keep reading.
There is flawed hero (acceptable) and flawed (unacceptable) hero for me.

@KimWexlersPonyTail

I had forgotten them too. May revisit, got a bit tired of the main character always mooching around his mothers Aga.

Ha this is a perfect description. Also mooching about eating fine food and being mysterious and complicated and drawing his sister's cat.

I've just finished book 10 in the series, Susan Hill does like describing food and what women wear. Plus Simon's hair flopping over his eyes.
I absolutely race through these and I'm delaying reading book 11, I don't really like Simon but I love the books.
It's a strange dichotomy.

Yes why do I need such a literary description of his prawn salad?

Also Saint Cat Durban is getting a bit tiresome.

I am honestly enjoying them though 🤣

@Scarby9

I loved these books until one later novel when I went massively off the main character and just couldn't bring myself to keep reading. There is flawed hero (acceptable) and flawed (unacceptable) hero for me.

Agreed

Do you mean his sister and her medical student lodger? I thought it was part of the deal they have - the student gets reduced/no rent in return for the childcare?

I've read quite a few of these and liked them as Hill is a great writer but I do find Serrailler himself a bit off-putting and quite misogynistic.

The latest in the series, book 12 I think, popped up on my library overdrive, so I decided to down load it even though I have lost track of where I got to in the series. Was really surprised at how much has happened in the characters lives so I reckon I’ve missed out a lot of them. Susan Hill, as you’d expect, is an excellent writer and these books are a satisfying read. This one was odd though. I felt she got so interested in the various characters that the plot/whodunnit seemed an afterthought. To be fair, I got so involved in the characters myself that it was only when I’d read the last page that I thought…wait a minute, this is a bit rushed….. is that it for the resolution? The book was intensely moving at times and some of the scenes still haunt me so it wasn’t a disappointment as such, just odd. I’ve downloaded the first in the series now to speed read through them to try to work out where I got to….. as I’m now interested in what’s been going on with the father and slightly pissed at/ intrigued about the justification for the doctor sister’s career trajectory.

Oh good call for audible, thank you

Wow is there 12?? I'm only on book 6, I really didn't like the "twist" in one of the earlier ones, didn't ring true at all.

I'm trying to be vague for those who may have not read them yet!

As a PP wrote, love the books but the main character seems arrogant and unpleasant to me. He seems to compare all women to his mother and sister and none are ever good enough. Susan Hill is a fantastic writer and i appreciate that despite Simon being a bit of a git, i still love the books and the irritation the characters cause me

@efeslight

As a PP wrote, love the books but the main character seems arrogant and unpleasant to me. He seems to compare all women to his mother and sister and none are ever good enough. Susan Hill is a fantastic writer and i appreciate that despite Simon being a bit of a git, i still love the books and the irritation the characters cause me

Have you read the whole series? I could tolerate Simon's flaws but the storyline involving the wider Serrailler family (trying not to give details for those wanting to read) was too much for me. I was very disappointed in the way Susan Hill chose to have the family react.

Simon is a misogynistic individual.

It's best to look at this series not as crime novels or police procedurals but a family saga with one of the family just happening to be a police officer.

Ohhh. I loved these. Read them voraciously each time one came out. Susan Hill followed me on Twitter too - then I found some of her politics really dodgy which made me look at her in a totally different way.
On a totally different subject, her book 'Family' is heartbreaking. It's about her second daughter. So so sad and worth a read.
She is a completely brilliant writer

This really made my laugh, I think it is very cheeky yes hahaha I must admit though, that series on audible has me hooked, nice to hear someone else talk about them

No spoiler, but the action of a male member of the family in one of the later books was so shocking, but it was rather dismissed. It put me off the books a bit.

Simon's romance in the book I'm currently listening to (the betrayal of trust) is making me roll my eyes verrrry hard.

Imagine finding out the character of ugly old DCI Nathan Coates was based on you.

Wow I just listened to the one where he goes undercover, dark or what!!

God the narrators Jamaican accent though (or whatever it was meant to be)..cringe!