Susan Hill, The Pure in the Heart (2005)

Warning: this lukewarm review may be seen as a spoiler!

This is volume two in the Serrailler series. Simon Serrailler is on one of his recurrent holidays in Venice to practice the art of drawing, harassed by the thought of Freya Graffham, his colleague who was killed by a serial killer when she – perhaps – was on the way to become more than a workmate to him. Serailler, the sensitive and artistic cop, is not good at close relationships, however.

At the beginning of the story Andy Gunton is released from prison, convinced that he has seen the last of that place, yet in a panic over returning to freedom after four predictable year, and soon after David Angus, a little schoolboy, is picked up by a stranger instead of the father of his classmate.

Initially, the plot seems promising, with appealing characters, but the last hundred pages or so were a disappointment as Hill spends so much time on Simon´s private problems (which are not even solved), cheating the reader of a satisfying solution to the main crime.

Susan Hill, De rene af hjertet (2009).
Advarsel: denne lunkne anmeldelse kan måske siges at indeholde en spoiler.

Bind to i serien om Simon Serrailler. Simon Serrailler er af sted på en af sine tilbagevendende ferier for at tegne i Venedig, plaget ved tanken om Freya Graffham, hans kollega, som blev dræbt af en seriemorder, netop som hun – måske – var på vej til at blive mere end en arbejdspartner for ham. Serrailler, som er den følsomme, kunstneriske strisser, har imidlertid ikke nemt ved at knytte sig til en kvinde.

Ved bogens start bliver Andy Gunton løsladt fra fængslet, overbevist om at det er for altid, men samtidig i panik over at skulle ud i verden efter fire forudsigelige og overskuelige år, og kort efter bliver David Angus, en lille skoledreng, samlet op af en fremmed i stedet for sin klassekammerats far.

Historien begynder lovende, med udmærkede personskildringer, men de sidste hundrede sider var efter min mening skuffende, fordi Hill bruger for meget plads på Simon Serraillers private problemer (som såmænd heller ikke bliver løst), og snyder læseren for en tilfredssluttende slutning.