Betrayal of Trustby Susan Hill. This latest Simon Serrallier mystery starts with a violent rainstorm, resulting local flooding, and the uncovering of a skeleton. Chief Superintendent Serrallier hopes it will turn out to be a Roman soldier, but it's not. It's the remains of a teenager who disappeared 15 years before and this discovery reopens a cold case. A chief superintendent doesn't usually take on such a case but Serrallier is particularly interested and hopes to be able to solve the crime, especially when a second skeleton is unearthed nearby.
One of the things I like about the Serrallier books is the integration of Simon's work as a policeman and his work as an artist with his sister, Cat's, work as a doctor and her family life without her husband. Cat has become increasingly interested in hospice care and cut back on her office hours in order to spend more time at the local hospice.
But there are budget cuts everywhere and that is producing problems for everyone in our story. Serrallier has a single assistant in his "team" and Cat is faced with the closure of a wing of the hospice. The father of the missing girl whose skeleton has now been found is the chair of the hospice committee and he and Cat identify a doctor who is opening a small facility for Alzheimer's care as a possible fund raiser.
Meanwhile we are following a woman who has been diagnosed by Cat with motor neurone, the generic term for conditions such as ALS. She wants to commit suicide before her condition deteriorates to the point where she can do nothing, but the various alternatives are not attractive. Her plight is treated with a great deal of sympathy in the book. The opposition to assisted suicide is voiced well and vehemently by Cat.
A computer imaging of the skull of the second set of bones, a music teacher who is facing the problems of a partner with dementia, and the unearthing of a witness to the disappearance of one of the victims 15 years before lead Serrallierto a sad and inconclusive solution to his cold case.
2012 No 25
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