MY THOUGHTS: I am fond of the Serrailler family, with perhaps the exception of Simon and Cat's father. Each new installment in this series is like visiting with old friends. Simon is still on his own but getting restless, not with his police work but with his personal life. Cat is as busy as ever, and as conscientious as ever. Familywise, things seem to be chugging along quite peacefully. But of course, it can't last. 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. In this newest installment of Susan Hill’s electrifying crime series, Simon Serrailler finds himself in devastating new territory as a sophisticated drug network sets its sights on Lafferton

A Change of Circumstance: Discover the million-copy

However, for the most part I thoroughly enjoyed the rambling middle class family saga and Stephen Pacey’s brilliant narration. The whole thing is, of course, extremely well written in that way Susan Hill has of crafting elegant, readable prose which never draws attention to itself but carries the reader along beautifully. The story, too, is a timely one and in many ways well done; the stories of the children involved and of the effects on their families are vivid and gripping, for example. However, I did find the policing aspect just a little clunky and preachy; at one point the Chief Constable gives a long and rather sententious speech to his officers, after which, one comments, “Didn’t have the chief down for a rallying-cry-before-battle sort of guy, did you?” Well, no I didn’t – and he was all the better for it. Serrailler himself sounds a bit like a politician with a pre-written answer at times, too, and I’ve come to expect better from Susan Hill. EXCERPT: January and Christmas vanished without a trace. The pavements of Starly village were greasy under a day of drizzle and there was an unhealthy mildness in the air. I like the mix of personal with professional lives that Hill writes so well. Neither overwhelms the other and they just blend seamlessly together. Just as in real life, there's not a lot of happy endings contained within. In fact, it makes for some pretty grim reading, alleviated only by the close Serrailler family relationships. But the ending gives me hope and I look forward to seeing how things develop in book #12, The Sound of Footsteps, due to be publisher later in 2023.In award-winning author Susan Hill’s electrifying A Change of Circumstance , Simon Serrailler finds himself in devastating new territory as a sophisticated drug network sets its sights on Lafferton. In the newest installmentofSusan Hill’s electrifying crime series, Simon Serrailler finds himself in devastating new territoryas a sophisticated drug networksets its sights on Lafferton In AChangeofCircumstance , the eleventh book in Susan Hill’s acclaimed crime series featuring the enigmatic detective Simon Serrailler, Hill yet again raises the stakes. I have loved this series since the first one -The Various Haunts of Men- and as we’re now at number eleven the characters feel as comfortable as old slippers and like friends in their familiarity. Simon is so intriguing and continues to do so which takes some skill to maintain in a succession of books. He’s a terrific policeman, a good leader, he cares very deeply about his family and is a great uncle to Cat’s children but he’s very complex and currently extremely restless and at a crossroads in his life. I like the on/off relationship with Rachel Wyatt which adds to the realism. Cat and her family always add a good personal touch and she offers Simon the stability and family he needs. Cat’s role in the books has grown over the years and I do enjoy that. I ended up skimming this - partly because the descriptions of recruitment of vulnerable children to county lines gangs was upsetting, and partly because I find Cat and Simon extremely annoying.

A Change of Circumstance: A Simon Serrailler Case

A Change of Circumstance reminds me of the repositioning sails cruise ships do, to move, free of passengers, to another location to begin ferrying people in a different area. It is his sister, Dr Cat Deerbon and her family, who provides the familial roots and stability to a Serrailler who has up to this point been a commitment phobe when it comes to women and relationships, although a meeting with a lover from his past, Rachel, push him towards considering permanent change. Cat is now working in the private health sector as a GP for Concierge Medical, although the pressures and strains of her profession remain, with patients like 95 year old Lionel Brown, along with the state of the NHS local hospital. This and the everyday family dramas, such as husband Chief Constable Kevin Bright's leg injury, worries over their dog Wookie, and Sam's problems, combine to leave Cat feeling exhausted. In the meantime, tragedies involving children recruited and threatened by the drugs trade, and other murders have Serrailler and his team determined to get some forms of justice.

This is the latest in Susan Hill's series featuring DCS Simon Serrailler of Lafferton Police, a blend of family drama and crime fiction, an addition which has Serrailler wondering if the time has come to make different life choices, including whether he should move to the country after his comfortable life renting a flat. Professionally, he finds himself having to confront the nightmare rise and spread of the county lines drugs trade, a threat to young people, the exploitation of children, with all the attendant threats it poses to the community. It is winter, it all begins with the discovery in the village of Starly of the ravaged body of a young man in a flat above a Chinese herbal pharmacy, a heroin overdose, and which sparks police inquiries as they try to identify the victim. Cat, who seems to be working herself to the bone just as much as she did when she was an NHS GP, handily has a poor 'deserving' private client to focus on, whose care is funded by an anonymous donor. As ever, she is the only competent, caring doctor in the book and is surprised when the overworked worn down nurses at the hospital don't appreciate her pointing out all the things they are doing wrong. Then there's Simon (the author is clearly in love with him, despite the faults she gives him), who should be disciplined for his treatment of Fern (in this book - I can no longer recall what happened in the last one). If I were Rachel I would run a mile. Finally, the author credits her proof-reader, but between them they seem to share the view that any number of ideas and phrases can be joined together in a single sentence with the use of commas.