This is a compelling and somewhat disturbing novel, conducted with Susan Hill’s customary fluency.
This is a compelling and somewhat disturbing novel, conducted with Susan Hill’s customary fluency. It features Simon Serailler, the author’s usual protagonist, investigating a cold case of a missing teenager who was last seen waiting at a bus stop some 16 years previously, and whose skeleton was found when heavy rain washed down sludge and rubble from a neighbouring hillside. But it also has a secondary theme — rather more serious than its ostensible subject — that of assisted suicide. Hypochondriacs are warned. What is examined, in admirable detail, somewhat overshadows the police procedural which is intricate and convincing. Thus there are two investigations in place which make demands on our attention on two very different levels. While they are both presented as being of equal weight, the one is clearly more important than the other and presents a conundrum which is difficult to ignore and impossible to solve.
First, the cold case. 16 years ago Harriet Lowther, a bright and confident 15-year-old, was seen waiting at a bus stop on her way to meet her mother in Lafferton, Serailler’s usual stamping ground. She failed to get on the bus and was never seen again. It was only when the landslip occurred that a set of bones was discovered, to be joined by a second set nearby. Forensic tests revealed both sets to be female. These now await Serailler’s expertise. He too has become a more rounded character, though still fastidious and artistic. He has fallen in love, but there are obstacles in his path, and it is these obstacles which link the purely fictitious account with the more intractable second subject. There is an ethical question here and it is not the usual one. Although in cases of assisted suicide complicity is undoubtedly a matter of conscience, the circumstances are troubling in many other respects. There is, for example, the question of fees, the role of mysterious go-betweens, the challenge of the doctors’ integrity, and above all the chosen companion who will accompany the sufferer to Switzerland and face the possibility of prosecution when he or she returns. Ways can be found, but they are not straightforward. It is to Susan Hill’s credit that she manages to make the two themes interchangeable, both highly readable, and best (or worst) plausible.
As many of the characters in the book are terminally ill this is a pressing problem, though it is the problem of Harriet Lowther’s disappearance that claims Serailler’s immediate attention. There were witnesses who saw her waiting at the bus stop, but 16 years is a long time in which to remember exact details. Astute readers will perhaps make the connection between the first and second subjects; predictably many of them will be proved wrong.
Harriet Lowther’s ultimate fate is not disclosed until late in the investigation, by which time the suspense is considerable. For Serailler, unlucky in love, it is business as usual, thus ensuring his unchanging presence in further episodes. But it will be hard to banish the memories of those other sufferers, and Susan Hill is to be congratulated on her tour de force: a novel rather more serious than a superior page-turner, though it is that as well. All in all a highly commendable performance, thoughtful, uncomfortable, and worthy of our undivided attention.
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