The Comforts of Home: A Simon Serrailler Mystery

The Comforts of Home recounts the events, professional and personal, of DC Superintendent Simon Serrailler’s return to duty following the traumatic amputation of his mangled left arm. Still recuperating, he’s drawn into the investigation of a woman murdered on a remote Scottish island. While that’s still ongoing, he’s assigned a cold case involving a missing girl back in his duty station of Lafferton, where a serial arsonist is also active. Compared with most mysteries, the solution to these crimes does not rely heavily on either the nitty-gritty of police procedure or the deductive insights of a super-smart sleuth, although both elements are present to some degree. As if in compensation, the reader learns more about the brooding Serrailler’s struggle to adjust to his prosthetic arm and about his family — a seriously sick father, a nephew trying to decide his future, and a sister considering a major job change. While the plot is well paced and the writing clear, The Comforts of Home is likely to appeal more to readers who appreciate a fuller development of the main characters and their backgrounds than to those who relish the details of the chase and the unfolding of a complex investigation.