Brilliant
The fourth Simon Serrailler novel looks at death from a wide range of perspectives: natural, unnatural; past and present; of old characters and new ones. By the end of it, I felt I had gone through the wringer, but as usual with this author, the journey was worth it.
THE VOWS OF SILENCE follows the formula of previous books in the series, switching between a police-procedural plot and the domestic lives of Simon, his extended family, and assorted residents of Lafferton. The crime part of the plot is here provided by an executioner-style killer; a loner who when young displayed obsessional tendencies, eventually fixating on a young woman called Alison. When Alison jilts him for his best friend, our "villain" goes insane, taking to wearing combat trousers, hunting and shooting game, living alone and generally fitting the profile of many an unhinged murderer. He stalks young women about the town and shoots them in a variety of "clean" ways, leaving Simon and his colleagues stymied by the apparent absence of a pattern to the killings. Each death is described in Susan Hill's characteristically brisk, unsentimental yet moving style: a woman who has just married and is awaiting her husband's return from work; a single mother worn-out by her young baby; two girls out for a pub night.
In Lafferton, a culprit uses a handgun to kill newlywed Melanie Drew in her apartment. Soon after that a sniper uses a rifle to shoot into a crowd standing outside a nightclub. Next a gun is fired killing a mother standing with her infant. The seemingly random killings have the townsfolk frightened and panicked.
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