Susan Hill

Cuando el joven abogado Arthur Kipps recibe el encargo de viajar a un pueblo remoto del interior rodeado de marismas brumosas para asistir al entierro de una anciana no puede ni imaginar lo que le espera, y solo ve en ello la posibilidad de progresar profesionalmente, lo que quiza le permita finalmente casarse.Mientras intenta poner orden en el legado de la difunta, empieza a ver una extraña aparicion y se introduce en una historia que los lugareños intentan olvidar: la de una madre soltera que tuvo que dejar a su hijo al cuidado de su hermana, pero el niño se hundio en las marismas mientras su madre biologica lo miraba todo impotente desde su ventana. Segun dice la tradicion, siempre que alguien ve al espectro de la madre, muere un niño, y a la larga Arthur Kipps comprobara en su propia familia hasta que punto esa tradicion es cierta.Susan Hill demuestra conocer muy bien tanto los elementos mas recurrentes de la novela gotica como los mecanismos que hacen que resulten tan efectivos. Sin embargo, su verdadero talento consiste en dotar de una modernidad asombrosa todos estos recursos y conseguir que el lector se sorprenda y atemorice como si fuera la primera vez que lee una historia de fantasmas.Tras haber vendido mas de un millon de ejemplares en todo el mundo, llevada a los escenarios reiteradamente y con enorme exito, y adaptada tanto a la radio como a la television, esta estremecedora historia ha sido adaptada para la gran pantalla en una espectacular version dirigida por James Watkins y protagonizada por Daniel Radcliffe.

La inesperada desaparición de David, un niño de apenas nueve años, hace que la ciudad de Lafferton recuerde sus peores pesadillas (los asesinatos relatados en Las distintas guaridas de los hombres). Es evidente desde el primer momento que David ha sido raptado a primera hora de la mañana a la puerta de su casa, pero no tardan en circular las mas funestas hipotesis acerca de los motivos y propositos de quien haya llevado a cabo tal delito, que poco a poco parece estar extrañamente vinculado con el robo y contrabando de coches de gama alta.Mas alla del caso del niño desaparecido, y como sucedia tambien en buena medida en la primera entrega de esta serie, el interes de la novela esta mas en la perfecta construccion de los personajes (de los que el lector siempre esta deseoso de saber mas) y en las relaciones que establecen entre si, que estrictamente en la resolucion del enigma. En el caso de Hill es evidente que predomina el interes por crear una obra literariamente efectiva e interesante sobre la voluntad de sorprender al lector con giros argumentales inesperados, y eso, paradojicamente, y debido a lo que nos tiene habituados la novela negra, resulta muy sorprendente.

Simon Serrailler, el guapo inspecto cuya frialdad e introversión le ha convertido en el rompecorazones de Laferton, parece haber dado con la horma de su zapato y, contradiciendo los rumores acerca de su homosexualidad, el objeto de sus deseos es nada menos que una afable y misteriosa monja pelirroja.Sin embargo, los devaneos amorosos deberan postergarse, pues el secuestro y desaparicion de un niño y un marido al que la reciente viudez parece haber transtornado por completo convierten a la pequeña comisaria de Lafferton en un polvorin a punto de estallar.Con elementos que pueden hallarse tambien en las novelas de Donna Leon o Alicia Gimenez Barlett, Susan Hill despliega ante los ojos del lector todo un mundo rural y la transformacion tragica y radicar que sufre a continuacion por el efecto del crimen, añadiendo la presion mediatica que sufre la policia por este hecho.Esta serie, al igual que su autora, esta teniendo un gran exito en Gran Bretaña. Susan Hill es conocida en España por el exito teatral que se representa actualmente de "La mujer de negro" (con Emilio Gutierrez Caba y Jorge de Juan).Susan Hill nacio en Scarborough en 1942 y se educo en Londres. Ha escrito Aire y angeles, Exrtaño encuentro, La señora de Winter y La mujer de negro, entre otras novelas, libros de relatos, obras de no ficcion y teatro, y su obra ha sido galardonada con los premios Whitbread y Somerset Maugham. Con Las distintas guaridas de los hombres (Edhasa, 2005), la primera novela del ciclo dedicado al detective Simon Serrailler, sorprendio tanto a criticos como a lectores por la perfecta combinacion de misterio, profundidad psicologica de los personajes y recreacion de la vida en una pequeña ciudad de provincias, y la segunda entrega, Los puros de corazon (Edhasa, 2006) no ha hecho sino confirmar las expectativas generadas. Tras vender mas de 120.000 ejemplares en Gran Bretaña, la serie ha empezado a publicarse con resonante exito en Alemania, Francia, Holanda, Italia, Japon, Suecia...

This book offers the chilling tale of a painting so terrifying, its secrets will haunt those who see it It is a ghost story by the author of "The Woman in Black", to be read by the fire on a cold winter''s night A mysterious depiction of masked revellers at the Venice carnival hangs in the college rooms of Oliver''s old professor in Cambridge On this cold winter''s night, its eerie secret is revealed by the ageing don... Este libro nos relata la escalofriante historia de una pintura tan terrorifica que sus secretos persiguen a todo el que la contempla Es una historia de fantasmas de la autora de "The Woman in Black", escrita para ser leida en torno al fuego durante una fria noche de invierno Una misteriosa composicion que muestra a unos celebrantes enmascarados en un carnaval veneciano La obra cuelga de las paredes del apartamento del viejo profesor Oliver en la Universidad de Cambridge...

Simon Serrailler is back in the fifth installment of this extremely popular series. Simon Serrailler has just wrapped up a particularly exhausting and difficult case for SIFT -- Special Incident Flying Task force and is on a sabbatical couple of months on a far-flung Scottish island, Tallansay, walking, drawing, relaxing, and having a pleasant no-ties fling with the hotel barmaid, Kirsty. He is called back just before his leave is due to end by Paula Devenish the Chief Constable, when two local prostitutes go missing and are subsequently found strangled. By the time he gets back, another girl has disappeared. So, a vendetta against prostitutes by someone with a warped mind? A series of killings by an angry punter? But then the wife of the new Dean of St Michael's Cathedral goes missing, followed by another respectable young married woman, on her way to the early shift at the print works. Is this all the work of one serial killer? The murders all take place in and around the canal area, near the footbridge. From the Hardcover edition.

Susan Hill's I'm King of the Castle was first published in 1970. Telling the story of two boys forced to live together by their widowed parents, it is a chilling portrayal of childhood cruelty and persecution, of parental blindness and of our own ambivalence to what are supposed to be the happiest days of our lives.

Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again. A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life. Wandering through her house that day, Hill''s eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in her home, neglected for years. Howard''s End is on the Landing charts the journey of one of the nation''s most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.

Returning home late one summer's evening, antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow takes a wrong turning and stumbles across the derelict old White House. Compelled by curiosity, he approaches the door, and, standing before the entrance feels the unmistakeable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'.

Everyone likes Olive Piper. A happy, open-hearted child growing up in the 1950s, her life is contented. When her passion for reading gets her into university she feels sure the world is waiting for her. But then she makes a mistake - the kind any one of us could make - and faces an impossible choice. 'A shattering coming-of-age story' Daily Telegraph

A gunman is terrorising young women. What links these seemingly random murders? The pressure is mounting... A captivating read ObserverDiscover the bestselling crime series that over ONE MILLION

Children are vanishing. The village of Lafferton is shattered. There are no witnesses and no leads - just a kidnapper at large. Then Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler receives a cal

A woman vanishes in the fog up on the Hill in Lafferton. The police have one lead - a pair of expensive cuff-links found in her flat, with a mysterious note attached to them. Then a young girl, an old man and even a dog disappear in quick succession in exactly the same place.

«No quiero que vengas», escribe el joven Edmund Hooper en una nota para Charles Kingshaw. Pero Kingshaw y su madre, ama de llaves, ya han tomado la decisión de trasladarse a vivir con Hooper y su pad

New chilling tales from the ''grande dame of English supernatural fiction''.From the foggy streets of Victorian London to the eerie perfection of 1950s suburbia, the everyday is invaded by the evil otherworldly in this unforgettable collection of new ghost stories from the author of The Woman in Black.In the title story, on a murky evening in a warmly lit club off St James, a bishop listens closely as a paranormal detective recounts his most memorable case, one whose horrifying denouement took place in that very building.In ''The Front Room'', a devoutly Christian mother tries to protect her children from the evil influence of their grandmother, both when she is alive and when she is dead.A lonely boy finds a friend in ''Boy Number 21'', but years later he is forced to question the nature of that friendship, and to ask whether ghosts can perish in fires.This is Susan Hill at her best, telling characteristically flesh-creeping and startling tales of thwarted ambition, terrifying revenge and supernatural stirrings that will leave readers wide-awake long into the night.

''Not all great novelists can write crime fiction but when one like Susan Hill does the result is stunning'' Ruth RendellThe cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place. As part of the same rapidly changing world, it shares the same hopes and fears, and the same kinds of crime, as any number of towns up and down the land.When one day DC Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton''s new Chief Constable, Kieron Bright, he is met by four plainclothes officers. He is asked to take the lead role in a complex, potentially dangerous undercover operation and must leave town immediately, without telling anyone not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him.Meanwhile, Simon''s sister Cat is facing difficult choices at work that will test her dedication to the NHS. But an urgent call about her and Simon''s father, Richard, soon presents her with a far greater challenge much closer to home.To complete his special op, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. As the op unfolds, Lafferton is dragged into the sort of case every town dreads. And Simon faces the fight of his life.

The fourth in the series of bestselling crime novels featuring Simon Serrailler, now a Detective Chief Superintendent. In the peaceful cathedral city of Lafferton, a gunman is terrorising young women. What - if anything - links the attacks? Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler is in charge of the case, but he is also struggling to deal with a tragedy at the heart of his own family. Two forthcoming events - a local fair and the high-profile cathedral wedding of the Lord Lieutenant's daughter - only add to the pressure...

Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life...