About all I can be bothered to say is this was really disappointing. When you find yourself wanting to smack the majority of the characters it might be a sign it's time to let go of a series...

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

I am so annoyed at myself. So I like most of Susan Hill books so I saw this on NetGalley and went gimme without realizing this is part of a series. I really wish that NetGalley would let you send books back. Totally my fault, and for now on I am going to cross-reference books on Goodreads to just check for things like that. That all said, I can't really help here at all. Since this is book # 10 I was totally confused about past events and who was what and why things were important. I loved the cover though! Seriously though this dragged for me at times and I found myself rushing through it. 

"The Benefit of Hindsight" follows DCS Serrailler after he has has returned to work after losing one of his arms.  With crime rates down, Lafferton has been quiet, until one night when two men open their front door to a distressing scene. Serrailler makes a serious error of judgment when handling the incident, and the stress of this, combined with the ongoing trauma of losing his arm, takes its toll. 

So Serrailler seems like an okay character. I don't know what to say here since this is the first book starring him I have read. All of the characters seem fine and have past and current connections. I did like that Serrailler messes up and the book follows through on the theme on in hindsight what could he have done better. 

I did like the writing and thought the flow was fine. I just was not engaged since I came into this series at book #10 and did not care about the characters in the same way I would have if I started off with book #1. Because of this, I am going to go back and read this series and will update this review after I finish books #1-9. 

I'm planning out my 2020 reading challenge(s), and I decided I'm going to read all of Tracy Chevalier's books (the ones I haven't already read). To try and give myself a jump start, I thought I'd give these short stories a read. I started with Tracy Chevalier's and it wasn't bad (not great either, but enough that I was intrigued to keep reading). I then read My Mother's Wedding and felt very eh about it.

I don't love Jane Eyre. I was supposed to read it twice in college, and I mostly made it through the first time but completely skipped it the second (which was for my senior seminar... don't tell anyone). It just didn't capture me, though I must admit I do love the line, "Reader, I married him."

I didn't think the stories had to be read in any order and I was already planning on skipping at least two. I googled each author and only three were women of color, so I thought I'd read those stories first. I read The China from Buenos Aires and felt eh. I read Party Girl and felt eh. I read Double Me and felt eh (though probably the least eh of the five). Since I didn't like any of those, I decided to quit reading.

I'm not sure if it's the authors, the source material, the subject they're all writing on or what, but there's just nothing that compelling or interesting about these stories (to me). Someone who's a big fan of these authors or Jane Eyre might like it more.