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Review
Alexander McCall Smith's Mma Ramotswe is going to have to look to her laurels! Sidney Chambers's adventures are thoroughly captivating and engaging. I loved the character and I loved the highly evocative period feel and dialogue Amanda Craig No detective since Father Brown has been more engaging than Canon Sidney Chambers. Perfect company in bed Salley Vickers The coziest of cozy murder mysteries ... These stories present a consistently charming and occasionally cutting commentary on "a postwar landscape full of industry, promise and concrete" New York Times Book Review What a bloody fantastic thing ... this could only be improved by finding a winning Euromillions ticket tucked in the pages Rev Richard Coles Only a churl could resist Sidney, whose musings on love, evil and morality, penchant for quoting snippets of poetry, preference for whiskey over the endless cups of tea he is offered, and ratiocinative success at unraveling crimes make him endearing Kirkus
Product Description
Sidney Chambers, the Vicar of Grantchester, is a thirty-two-year-old bachelor. Tall, with dark brown hair, eyes the colour of hazelnuts and a reassuringly gentle manner, Sidney is an unconventional clergyman and can go where the police cannot. Together with his roguish friend, Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney inquires into the suspect suicide of a Cambridge solicitor, a scandalous jewellery theft at a New Year's Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a well-known jazz promoter and a shocking art forgery, the disclosure of which puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty. Nonetheless, he manages to find time for a keen interest in cricket, warm beer, hot jazz and the works of Tolstoy and Shakespeare - as well as a curious fondness for a German widow three years his junior. From the son of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, this is the first of The Grantchester Mysteries, six detective novels spanning thirty years of British history - from the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 to the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 - featuring the unforgettable vicar and sleuth, Sidney Chambers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Sidney and Geordie meet regularly on a Thursday night for a couple of pints and a few games of backgammon in The Eagle, the local pub in Grantchester, just outside Cambridge.
They talk about life and what has been occurring in their lives. Their families and potential love interests.
Just two friends getting together and sharing life, a friendship if you will.
So what makes them so different from any other?
Sidney is a thirty-something jazz loving Canon, Geordie is a police inspector. It is the year of the coronation, 1953 and James Runcie has created a new detective to rival such as Miss Marple, Mma Ramotswe and Father Brown.
Six short stories are contained in this first volume (there is to be six volumes in total) from a woman worried about the death of her married lover, was it suicide? A theft of an expensive engagement ring at a dinner party, that Sidney is attending, the apparent speedy death of a mother who is reluctant to let her daughter marry, a forged painting of a former Queen, and a death on stage in a local am dram performance.
In all of these Sidney needs to draw upon his strength to help and guide as well as be called upon by the police to assist where necessary. Investigations become part of pastoral care in Sidney's parish. It is his faith in people not just his religious faith that shows Sidney's keen eye in these investigations.
Runcie has created a wonderful character in Canon Sidney Chambers he has depth and will no doubt be developed more in proceeding novels. Although the stories can be read individually they actually all inter twine with recurring characters such as the potential love interest for Sidney in Amanda and Hildegard. As well as Sidney's family especially his sister Jennifer. Then there is the delightful Mrs Maguire the housekeeper with a forthright manner and opinion and aversion to dogs.
The setting is picturesque, and it took me back in time to the mid fifties and with enough relevant historical setting to place the novel correctly and I look forward to see how these novels progress. In the meantime I will be rereading this book and enjoying it all the more.
They talk about life and what has been occurring in their lives. Their families and potential love interests.
Just two friends getting together and sharing life, a friendship if you will.
So what makes them so different from any other?
Sidney is a thirty-something jazz loving Canon, Geordie is a police inspector. It is the year of the coronation, 1953 and James Runcie has created a new detective to rival such as Miss Marple, Mma Ramotswe and Father Brown.
Six short stories are contained in this first volume (there is to be six volumes in total) from a woman worried about the death of her married lover, was it suicide? A theft of an expensive engagement ring at a dinner party, that Sidney is attending, the apparent speedy death of a mother who is reluctant to let her daughter marry, a forged painting of a former Queen, and a death on stage in a local am dram performance.
In all of these Sidney needs to draw upon his strength to help and guide as well as be called upon by the police to assist where necessary. Investigations become part of pastoral care in Sidney's parish. It is his faith in people not just his religious faith that shows Sidney's keen eye in these investigations.
Runcie has created a wonderful character in Canon Sidney Chambers he has depth and will no doubt be developed more in proceeding novels. Although the stories can be read individually they actually all inter twine with recurring characters such as the potential love interest for Sidney in Amanda and Hildegard. As well as Sidney's family especially his sister Jennifer. Then there is the delightful Mrs Maguire the housekeeper with a forthright manner and opinion and aversion to dogs.
The setting is picturesque, and it took me back in time to the mid fifties and with enough relevant historical setting to place the novel correctly and I look forward to see how these novels progress. In the meantime I will be rereading this book and enjoying it all the more.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the first of 6 books featuring Sidney Chambers --sleuthing vicar.Set in 1953 and full of period charm,detail and SEVERAL interesting cases to solve.Engaging and gripping from the start.Sidney is charming,young, jazz loving and sensitive and works with Inspector Keating and Leonard Graham the curate in Cambridge.Intriguing and fresh as paint.Mrs Maguire his housekeeper adds to the humour.
Mr. Runcie tells a really good page turning set of stories.The mysteries are similar in a vague way to Alexander Macall Smith's Madame Ramotswe in that there is philosophical thoughts and ruminations on the human condition etc but --this series appeals to me more.(A well known reviewer originally compared the two)
I cannot wait to read the next volume.
Mr. Runcie tells a really good page turning set of stories.The mysteries are similar in a vague way to Alexander Macall Smith's Madame Ramotswe in that there is philosophical thoughts and ruminations on the human condition etc but --this series appeals to me more.(A well known reviewer originally compared the two)
I cannot wait to read the next volume.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a big fan of crime fiction, and also of the 1950s, I looked forward to reading this book. How disappointed I was! The characterisation was very poor, the dialogue was dire, the plots ridiculous. It felt like a children's book, though most children's authors have more literary talent than Mr Runcie. a waste of money!
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