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rachejm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
philippakmoore's review
4.0
A great read - and my introduction to the Simon Serrailler series. Though, I have to say, the most interesting character in this story was not Simon but his sister Cat who is juggling a high-pressure job (she is a GP), a second marriage with three children between them, and a needy elderly (and quite unpleasant) father.
Suspenseful and insightful, recommended for those who like detective fiction with a lot of human insight and family drama alongside.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Suspenseful and insightful, recommended for those who like detective fiction with a lot of human insight and family drama alongside.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
valerie87's review
4.0
This was my 100th book for the year!
The Benefit of Hindsight is the 10th book in the Simon Serrailer series. I always enjoy this series because there are usually a few cases being investigated, so it stays exciting. In addition, there’s always a lot going on with the Serrailer family.
Simon is back to work full time after convalescing in Scotland in the last book (where he still managed to take on a case). His new case involves two planned robberies. His sister, Kat, is taking on her new job with a few bumps, but still she is happy. Unfortunately their father comes back from France and is once again involved with the family. I say unfortunately because I really dislike his character! He is a miserable and awful person. He really doesn’t fit in the family.
Somehow, Simon seems to be transitioning to his new arm rather well. I feel like it would be more difficult than it is. I guess Simon is just an amazing person who can carry on no matter what comes his way!
There is only one more book in this series that I can get ahold of right now. I wonder what will happen next!
The Benefit of Hindsight is the 10th book in the Simon Serrailer series. I always enjoy this series because there are usually a few cases being investigated, so it stays exciting. In addition, there’s always a lot going on with the Serrailer family.
Simon is back to work full time after convalescing in Scotland in the last book (where he still managed to take on a case). His new case involves two planned robberies. His sister, Kat, is taking on her new job with a few bumps, but still she is happy. Unfortunately their father comes back from France and is once again involved with the family. I say unfortunately because I really dislike his character! He is a miserable and awful person. He really doesn’t fit in the family.
Somehow, Simon seems to be transitioning to his new arm rather well. I feel like it would be more difficult than it is. I guess Simon is just an amazing person who can carry on no matter what comes his way!
There is only one more book in this series that I can get ahold of right now. I wonder what will happen next!
leonajudge's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
michaelcattigan's review
4.0
As a series continues, they become increasingly difficult to review, don’t you find? All the witty and intelligent comments you can think of you have used before!
So, looking at The Benefit of Hindsight, have we got all the hallmarks of a Simon Serrailler novel?
Has Lafferton been struck by a series of horrific crimes? Check! In this outing, the focus seems to be burglary initially: organised, complex burglaries to order of high value items from isolated homes. It doesn’t take terribly long for one of those burglaries to then end up in a death.
Is Serrailler back in charge? Check! The previous two books have taken him out of the comfortable environment of Lafferton as he went undercover in The Soul of Discretion, a posting that left him severely injured, and recuperated in Taransay in The Comforts of Home.
Does Serrailler come across as a misogynistic shit? Oh my goodness, yes! He does descend into full blown predator-mode through this! He preys on colleagues and young detective sergeants – to be fair, only the one – in a way which could easily open up a sexual harassment allegation; he preys on nurses – a nurse – in hospital as he alternates between interviewing victims and falling foul to his own post-traumatic stress.
Is the novel informed by and developing issues from earlier in the series? Yes it does – and this is one of the pleasures of this series: memories and traumas and losses and loves from previous novels echo throughout the later ones. Not simply in the fact that Serrailler has joined the ranks of Cormoran Strike to be a detective with a prosthesis, but the fact that his trauma still affects him and his job. In this case, taking the form of powerfully described crippling attacks of anxiety.
Does the novel abound with familiar and new secondary characters and plots around Lafferton? Check. Cat Deerbon, newly engaged in private practice, gets involved in the sub-plot; Lafferton’s cathedral takes a brief centre stage moment; Simon’s art is returned to; be bump into Simon’s ex, Rachel. And Susan Hill uses her broad narrative sweep to encompass a wide range of minor characters in the main plot. As we have come to expect, the city of Lafferton is almost the main character.
The main plot – the burglary scam – is fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. Engagingly written and the depiction of the first victims, Tim and Ade, was vivid and vibrant and warm, though I found the other victims, Cindy and Declan McDermid, significantly less credible: retiring millionaires who give money out philanthropically – including giving a Bobby van to Lafferton Police – and are touchingly shy and self-effacing when giving speeches. As soon as they leave the unveiling of the Bobby van, they interrupt the burglary and are tied up and Cindy murdered. In a strangely brutal way which for me did not seem entirely consistent with an interrupted burglary gone wrong.
The hindsight required in the title of the novel reflects on Serrailler’s decision to withhold from the public the details of Tim and Ade’s burglary, details that could have led to the McDermids taking additional security procedures. Was his post-traumatic stress inhibiting his decision making? Was he right or wrong to make that call? Should he be facing reprimands because the consequences of that initial decision were tragic and fatal? Personally, I smelt scapegoat and sacrificial lamb being cooked up there.
To be honest, I actually found the sub-plot with Colin and Carrie actually far more engaging. They were a very vulnerable couple: Colin was painted in fairly broad brush strokes way to be on the autistic spectrum in some way, hiding from his wife and humanity behind the computer screens on which he did his various financial trading; Carrie, pregnant in the opening chapters and later mother, was morbidly convinced that there was something wrong with her child even before she had been born – even before she had been conceived.
Hill managed the ambiguity of that situation wonderfully: we could both sympathise with and be horrified by both Colin and Carrie; we wanted them to be supported, but we wanted their daughter protected from them both.
We also need to consider the conclusion of the novel. There are some – many – probably most – readers of crime fiction who crave the resolution, the re-establishment of law and order after the chaotic intrusion of a crime, the return to the status quo. These readers are going to find the lack of resolution that this novel offers incredibly frustrating – but then this is not really a detective series any more. It is more like a soap opera, a saga of Lafferton, in which the fact that Serrailler is a detective is almost an incidental fact. For myself, I enjoy that controlled and deliberate and gentle subverting of the genre: don’t forget that in The Various Haunts of Men, the very first novel back in 2004, Freya Graffham – who so far as we could tell was our detective protagonist – did not survive. Hill is not a writer to be a slave to convention.
Overall, I think this felt almost like a reboot: the brief foray into a thriller genre since The Soul of Discretion feels like it has returned back to its roots.
RATINGS
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot / Pace: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Language: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Date: 3 October 2019
Available: Amazon
So, looking at The Benefit of Hindsight, have we got all the hallmarks of a Simon Serrailler novel?
Has Lafferton been struck by a series of horrific crimes? Check! In this outing, the focus seems to be burglary initially: organised, complex burglaries to order of high value items from isolated homes. It doesn’t take terribly long for one of those burglaries to then end up in a death.
Is Serrailler back in charge? Check! The previous two books have taken him out of the comfortable environment of Lafferton as he went undercover in The Soul of Discretion, a posting that left him severely injured, and recuperated in Taransay in The Comforts of Home.
Does Serrailler come across as a misogynistic shit? Oh my goodness, yes! He does descend into full blown predator-mode through this! He preys on colleagues and young detective sergeants – to be fair, only the one – in a way which could easily open up a sexual harassment allegation; he preys on nurses – a nurse – in hospital as he alternates between interviewing victims and falling foul to his own post-traumatic stress.
Is the novel informed by and developing issues from earlier in the series? Yes it does – and this is one of the pleasures of this series: memories and traumas and losses and loves from previous novels echo throughout the later ones. Not simply in the fact that Serrailler has joined the ranks of Cormoran Strike to be a detective with a prosthesis, but the fact that his trauma still affects him and his job. In this case, taking the form of powerfully described crippling attacks of anxiety.
Does the novel abound with familiar and new secondary characters and plots around Lafferton? Check. Cat Deerbon, newly engaged in private practice, gets involved in the sub-plot; Lafferton’s cathedral takes a brief centre stage moment; Simon’s art is returned to; be bump into Simon’s ex, Rachel. And Susan Hill uses her broad narrative sweep to encompass a wide range of minor characters in the main plot. As we have come to expect, the city of Lafferton is almost the main character.
The main plot – the burglary scam – is fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. Engagingly written and the depiction of the first victims, Tim and Ade, was vivid and vibrant and warm, though I found the other victims, Cindy and Declan McDermid, significantly less credible: retiring millionaires who give money out philanthropically – including giving a Bobby van to Lafferton Police – and are touchingly shy and self-effacing when giving speeches. As soon as they leave the unveiling of the Bobby van, they interrupt the burglary and are tied up and Cindy murdered. In a strangely brutal way which for me did not seem entirely consistent with an interrupted burglary gone wrong.
The hindsight required in the title of the novel reflects on Serrailler’s decision to withhold from the public the details of Tim and Ade’s burglary, details that could have led to the McDermids taking additional security procedures. Was his post-traumatic stress inhibiting his decision making? Was he right or wrong to make that call? Should he be facing reprimands because the consequences of that initial decision were tragic and fatal? Personally, I smelt scapegoat and sacrificial lamb being cooked up there.
To be honest, I actually found the sub-plot with Colin and Carrie actually far more engaging. They were a very vulnerable couple: Colin was painted in fairly broad brush strokes way to be on the autistic spectrum in some way, hiding from his wife and humanity behind the computer screens on which he did his various financial trading; Carrie, pregnant in the opening chapters and later mother, was morbidly convinced that there was something wrong with her child even before she had been born – even before she had been conceived.
Hill managed the ambiguity of that situation wonderfully: we could both sympathise with and be horrified by both Colin and Carrie; we wanted them to be supported, but we wanted their daughter protected from them both.
We also need to consider the conclusion of the novel. There are some – many – probably most – readers of crime fiction who crave the resolution, the re-establishment of law and order after the chaotic intrusion of a crime, the return to the status quo. These readers are going to find the lack of resolution that this novel offers incredibly frustrating – but then this is not really a detective series any more. It is more like a soap opera, a saga of Lafferton, in which the fact that Serrailler is a detective is almost an incidental fact. For myself, I enjoy that controlled and deliberate and gentle subverting of the genre: don’t forget that in The Various Haunts of Men, the very first novel back in 2004, Freya Graffham – who so far as we could tell was our detective protagonist – did not survive. Hill is not a writer to be a slave to convention.
Overall, I think this felt almost like a reboot: the brief foray into a thriller genre since The Soul of Discretion feels like it has returned back to its roots.
RATINGS
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot / Pace: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Language: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Date: 3 October 2019
Available: Amazon
kelbi's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely not up to previous standard. No heart. Why did they call the baby It all the time for example? I used to love these books. No more for me
schopflin's review
dark
fast-paced
3.5
A good quality read, dark and disturbing. Good to have such a flawed character as the central detective. I am very uncomfortable with the character of Colin Pegwell, as I think he is being coded as neuro-diverse but in a deeply negative way. It could be argued that he simply has a personality disorder but Hill risks perpetuating the myth that neuro-diverse people lack empathy and are cruel and unfeeling. I would expect better from an author of her calibre
kirkw1972's review
5.0
I'm still working my way through Hill's back catalogue but the Simon Serrailler series is one I'm really enjoying. I definitely need to go back to the beginning though as there is someone who turns up towards the end of this that I imagine was ins ome of the more earlier books and I want to know more.
This one is quite the mix of Simon's story and that of his sister Cat. I think she has a fairly equal billing in this with her new job at the Concierge surgery. I really enjoyed both sides of this. Again I might have to go back to the beginning and compare but while there are several crimes in this story and some crime detection, it's more about Simon's life and how his issues are affecting everything. There isn't really a proper resolution to the crime part of the plot. I'm okay with that as I enjoy reading about him and Cat. I love all the characters from the family, even their father who does not seem to be a nice person at all.
It's a fairly quick read and kept my attention all the way through. Another hit and hopefully I'll have caught up by the next one.
This one is quite the mix of Simon's story and that of his sister Cat. I think she has a fairly equal billing in this with her new job at the Concierge surgery. I really enjoyed both sides of this. Again I might have to go back to the beginning and compare but while there are several crimes in this story and some crime detection, it's more about Simon's life and how his issues are affecting everything. There isn't really a proper resolution to the crime part of the plot. I'm okay with that as I enjoy reading about him and Cat. I love all the characters from the family, even their father who does not seem to be a nice person at all.
It's a fairly quick read and kept my attention all the way through. Another hit and hopefully I'll have caught up by the next one.
lazygal's review
5.0
I'll be honest, getting this book shocked me: the author has resisted the Bigger is Better trend and this is a relatively slim volume. *faints*
As far as mysteries go, there are several here and enough left unsolved to take us into another book or two. Simon is still clearly suffering from his past experiences, both the porn case and losing his arm, and the way his case of both PTSD and physical issues is described well. The question of how the robberies were being managed and how the Lafferton police handle that case is central and (I think) mostly resolved but with a few loose threads. Then there's Richard and Sam and Catherine, and how those family ties and outside relationships will play out leaves the reader with a few possibilities.
This reader can't wait.
As far as mysteries go, there are several here and enough left unsolved to take us into another book or two. Simon is still clearly suffering from his past experiences, both the porn case and losing his arm, and the way his case of both PTSD and physical issues is described well. The question of how the robberies were being managed and how the Lafferton police handle that case is central and (I think) mostly resolved but with a few loose threads. Then there's Richard and Sam and Catherine, and how those family ties and outside relationships will play out leaves the reader with a few possibilities.
This reader can't wait.