A review by nonna7
The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill

4.0

This is the the most recent book in this series. My obsession has been shelved until October when the next book comes out. I wandered into the series by accident and decided that I just HAD to read the series from the beginning.






Simon is recovering from his near fatal death after his undercover work. He has lost his arm and is using a temporary prosthesis. The book opens with him back on the remote Scottish island where he goes to get away from it all. Unfortunately, this time a murder takes place and he is forced to deal with that.

The book is really all about loose ends which is real life. However, that may not be satisfying for some readers who prefer a series that has a straightforward
beginning, middle and end.

One of the loose ends is Rachel, the woman with whom he had been living before he went undercover. He was head over heels in love with her until she moved in with him. Then she had the audacity to make a few change in his apartment which is his place of refuge. White walls, white sofas, elm floors, floor to ceiling book cases. When Rachel throws a couple of colored throws on his white sofas, that seems to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. He’s almost relieved to go undercover. Now he’s recuperating. The reader is over half through the book before Rachel is even mentioned. Simon is a solitary and self contained man. He’s happy to interact when it suits him, but ONLY when it suits him. That doesn’t make for good relationships.







While he is on the island, the Chief Constable who is also now Simon’s brother in law, asks him to look at a five year old cold case. He does it with his usual thoroughness. The police have always suspected that a convict serving a life sentence for murder also murdered the young woman in the cold case, but there was no proof, and he denied that he did it and still denies it. Simon discovers that there was sloppy police work in the case. He wraps up the case in Scotland when Police Scotland relieve him of the case and heads home. While he is there his nephew, Sam, surprises him by visiting him. He is out of school an unsure what he wants to do.

This is a very introspective and thoughtful book. Solving crimes is what Simon does, but this is really more about relationships at work and at home wherever that happens to be.