The Pure in Heart is the second of Susan Hill's series featuring DCI Simon Serrailler. However, this is not a police procedural. It's a complex psychological drama cleverly supported by the framework of one.

Hill's characters are fully-formed humans, even those who only make a brief appearance. The DCI is grieving the brutal death of a colleague and potential love interest, Freya Graffham, which happened at the end of the previous novel, The Various Haunts of Men. He's worried about his profoundly disabled younger sister, at odds with his bullying father over Martha as with everything else. His other sister and best friend Cat Deerbon is days away from giving birth. Then a nine-year-old boy goes missing and despite all the efforts of Lafferton CID, no solid leads appear. Young DS Nathan Coates, who's worked hard to get away from Dulcie Housing Estate, and the rest of his colleagues exhaust themselves as they confront the reality that David is, in all probability, dead. Meanwhile, twenty-something Andy Gunton is released from prison, headed back to Dulcie, vowing never again to be behind bars. But his sister doesn't really want him around, his parole officer might as well be from another planet and his past seems determined to catch up with him.

David's family implodes following his disappearance. Simon and Cat's mother is hiding a terrible secret, and Simon's occasional lover, the smart, scented, successful red-haired Diana, is intruding into his private space, desperate with love that he cannot reciprocate.

The Pure in Heart has left me wanting much more from these characters. ( )

No. 2 in the Simon Serrailler series. Just as good as the first one. Hill continues to defy convention with her characters and situations, and I love the community of Lafferton as some love Three Pines (where I never settled in.)
Read in 2014 ( )

The central mystery is the kidnapping of a schoolboy. The main story seems to be about the personal troubles of Simon Serrailer in his relations with family and former girlfriend. Good portrayal of police procedures.

This is the second book in the series and follows Simon after several losses and the kidnapping of a 9 year old boy. I listened to the audio book and the narration was fantastic. ( )

The second Simon Serrailler mystery, with the focus rather more squarely on Serrailler as the main protagonist (but with a number of other excellent characters as well). Another good mystery, this one also got me excited to read the next in the series. ( )