A Question of Identity - Hardcover

Hill, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0307363023 ISBN 13: 9780307363022

Publisher: Knopf Canada, 2013

Synopsis

Lafferton is struggling through a bitter winter, with heavy snowfalls paralysing the town, though at least the police can be sure the ram raiders who have been targeting antique and jewellers' shops will be lying low.

The biggest worry the elderly have is how to keep warm, until 82-year-old Doris Upcott is found strangled in her home, followed by the deaths of 2 other residents of the same sheltered housing complex. Each time, the murderer has left a unique signature at the crime scene, which should help DCS Simon Serrailler, desperate to identify him before he kills again.

When links are found between these and 3 similar murders elsewhere, Serrailler is obliged to cross unfamiliar territory in his search for answers.

About this title

About the Author

SUSAN HILL's novels and short stories have won the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham and John Llewellyn Rhys awards and been finalists for the Booker Prize. She is the author of over 40 books, including the 6 previous Serrailler crime novels, The Various Haunts of Men, The Pure in Heart, The Risk of Darkness, The Vows of Silence, The Shadows in the Street and The Betrayal of Trust. The play adapted from her famous ghost story, The Woman in Black, was recently made into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe. Hill was born in North Yorkshire, England and educated at King's College, London. She is married to the Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells, and they have 2 daughters. She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs her own small publishing firm, Long Barn Books.

From Booklist

The title of this, the seventh in the Simon Serrailler mysteries, gives a hint at the complexities of identity. In the novel, identity is something police and prosecutors must establish to link person and scene of the crime. It also becomes something much more fluid and pernicious as it relates to character and deception. Past informs the present here—in 2002, a serial killer in Yorkshire has, incredibly to all the trial watchers, gotten away with his murders. Quick cut to 2012 and Hill’s fictional town of Lafferton. An elderly woman is murdered in her home. Detective Chief Inspector Serrailler suspects a serial killer from the start. His profiling skills, based on the evidence at the scene, are impressive. Sure enough, more murder follows, with Serrailler and his squad desperately trying to catch the cunning killer. The novel is spiked with the killer’s musings, which heighten tension and illuminate a very dark space. Very spooky, tick-tock suspense. --Connie Fletcher

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Canada
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0307363023
• ISBN 13: 9780307363022
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368