In this series opener set in England, Simon Serrailler is a DCI in Lafferton, a small cathedral town which is now home to a series of strange disappearances, which may or may not have been criminal, but in any case, disappearances which leave behind no clues. However, as the number of people who go missing quickly increases, an enterprising new detective sergeant, Freya Graffham, just knows in her bones that they are all related somehow. Her boss, Simon, gives her the go-ahead to investigate.
The mystery is decent, with the author giving you insights into the killer's mind via a recorded tape interspersed throughout the story. Her characters are okay; some of them (especially Simon) could have been a lot more fleshed out. Freya, imho, was kind of overdone, kind of school-girlish and silly in the scope of her personal life, considering her past experiences and her level of responsibility at the police department. Also, I felt that a lot of the dialogue going on between Simon's sister the doctor and her friend that had very little bearing on the core mystery could have been eliminated to make the book much more streamlined. In other words, sometimes Hill is a bit wordy. These kinds of things are generally what I expect in a series opener, but most of the time, problems tend to get ironed out by the second book.
Overall, not a bad read, and I will definitely be buying more of the series. Recommended for fans of British mystery series and British crime fiction in general. However, I do think I like Susan Hill much better as a ghost-story writer.
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