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    Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1
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    Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1
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    Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1
    Ebook412 pages6 hours

    Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1

    By James Runcie

    3.5/5

    ()

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    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    'Inspector Morse would appear to have a rival' - Scotland on Sunday

    'A perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon, a hammock and a glass of Pimms' - Guardian

    'An undiluted pleasure' - Scotsman
    _______________

    Sidney Chambers, the Vicar of Grantchester, is a thirty-two year old bachelor. 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...
    _______________

    'A charmingly effective tale of detection ... a satisfyingly old-fashioned read' - The Times
    'No detective since Father Brown has been more engaging than Canon Sidney Chambers' - Salley Vickers
    'The coziest of cozy murder mysteries' - New York Times Book Review
    'Full of witty phrases to delight the reader' - Peggy Woodford, Church Times
    'Gentle criminal entertainment with a pleasantly old-fashioned feel to it' - Andrew Taylor, Spectator
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMay 10, 2012
    ISBN9781408828465
    Unavailable
    Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death: Grantchester Mysteries 1
    Author

    James Runcie

    James Runcie is an award – winning film-maker and writer. He is unashamedly forty-one and lives in St. Albans with his wife and two daughters. ‘The Discovery of Chocolate’ is his first novel, written because he finds the prospect of everlasting life far more frightening than death, and because, according to Vogue Magazine, “It’s official. People who eat chocolate live longer than those who do not.”

    Read more from James Runcie

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    Reviews for Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death

    3.5/5

    247 ratings31 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A quaint, relatively easy to read collection of short stories introducing Sidney Chambers, with a supporting role to his friend Geordie Keating, the Police Inspector. I came to this, like many, from the TV series, and whilst enjoyable, I think actually the TV series is considerably better. In literary form, Sidney looks more like a young Jeremy Brett, I would have thought and whilst the casting of Robson Green wasn't far off the mark as Keating, curate Leonard isn't like his screen counterpart. The TV characters seem to have more depth, more passions. This felt like Kazuo Ishiguro without the seemless ness. The latter depictions of the treatment of homosexuals in this era were well handled, yet I found some of the pontificating and need for moralising at times difficult. I didn't really ask for Aesops fables, I picked up the book for a unique take on an era and a character, and whilst the former was fairly well addressed the latter wasn't.
    • 2/5
      This new cozy mystery series set in 1950's Cambridge features a vicar playing detective. While it had all the elements I usually enjoy in this type of series, an amateur playing detective, a curmudgeonly housekeeper and an English setting, it seemed somewhat lacking. I think it needed an injection of humor or maybe a few more wacky characters to keep it from being so dry.
      I did like the fact that it's format was in a series of criminal vignettes rather than one single murder mystery but I still found it a little difficult to get through.

      2.5 stars
    • 2/5
      Another amateur detective joins a very crowded market place. In this case in the guise of Cannon Sidney Chambers, a Cambridgeshire Vicar who teams up with local Police to solve crime while debating with himself over the role of Christianity in 1950's England. Not in the same class as say Alexander McCall Smith, but it ticks all the boxes for a period English mystery series; so it no surprise a television series has quickly followed - not made by the BBC as one or two reviews have stated. Personally I'd argue that the tv series is far better than it's source material deserves.
    • 4/5
      A fun read especially having watched the PBS series by the same name. As I was reading, I was visualizing all of the actors who played the Grantchester characters which made the book so much more enjoyable. I am such a fan of British drama and the period and character interaction were well done.
    • 4/5
      I have enjoyed the Grantchester Mysteries on PBS, and the actual novel expounds on the series. The first book contains short stories on the different adventures that Canon Sidney Chambers encounters in his quest of serving God. My biggest beef with James Runcie becomes the omission of a table of contents at the beginning of the book. The stories introduce Sidney's meeting with each of the supporting characters such as Leonard, Amanda, Dickens, Mrs. Maguire, and Geordie. Each character plays a role in the life of Sidney in his quest of serving God and helping people to find God's love and understanding. The emphasis of each story gently reminds the reader of the good and bad emotions that push an individual into crime and murder. Friendship enters into every story as the rock that holds Sidney on his journey. I look forward to reading more of this series.
    • 4/5
      What a refreshing change to have a balanced, normal, moral central character who is presented as having a faith which impacts his everyday life but (and here is the clever bit) doesn't turn him into an idiot. Sidney is brilliantly conceived character, with a past and real emotions, rather than just being a caricature of a person in his chosen vocation.
      The book is relatively unusual for contemporary novel in its construction and is all the better for it. It is in effect a collection of short stories encompassed by an overarching narrative. This form makes for a great page-turner whilst allowing the development of the main characters.
      Some may look on these stories a being a little corny (although they would be wrong), they are certainly gentle in nature and set in a very different and long-disappeared time but it would take some effort of will not to be charmed by these stories. I have been taken in completely by Canon Chambers and the picture of life in the early 1950s presented in this book and I'm not ashamed of it! Can't wait to get back to Grantchester!
    • 4/5
      First of the Grantchester Mysteries series, about a Church of England vicar who solves mysteries in collaboration with one of the local police detectives. The first book is a set of six short stories, each a standalone about an individual case, but with an overall arc running through them. I bought it because I'd seen and enjoyed a couple of episodes of the tv adaptation. This doesn't always mean I'll like a book, but in this case I'm very glad I bought it. It's an excellent period cosy mystery, written by someone who knows the minutiae of Anglican clerical life. The ebook for this one is often low price as a hook for the series, and well worth getting.
    • 4/5
      I had, I guess, expected a more traditional mystery than this is, I suppose because I read this after watching Grantchester on PBS. Instead, it's a lot of really unconnected mysteries (and non-mysteries): three murders, two suspected-but-not murders, a theft, another theft involving art forgery and kidnapping, and some other things besides. The book is quite different from the TV series, or, at least, the parts of this book that were used in it are treated pretty differently. I'm not sure the TV series isn't better in terms of depth and pacing. The cramming of so many unrelated mysteries into a single novel leaves little time for in-depth investigation and slow reveal of, say, an Agatha Christie and so as a reader you lose a bit of the fun of trying to outsmart the detective while the story unfolds slowly - you're shuttled rapidly between incidents via Sidney's inner reflections that he should really stop becoming involved and on his helplessness to actually refuse, even at the expense of his other responsibilities. It was an enjoyable read nonetheless, but, again, not at all what I was expecting. I'm looking forward to reading more books in the series.
    • 4/5
      Cozy English mysteries involving the some of the same characters--
    • 3/5
      Sidney Chambers, a vicar and lecturer in Grantchester, Cambridge, solves crimes with his friend Inspector Keating and flirts with his friend Amanda while wistfully remembering the German widow of the first murder victim. I have not seen any of the television episodes, but I found these stories mostly enjoyable in a harmless way. (Noteable exception here being the story where a character is kidnapped and sexually assaulted, which was disturbing and seemed to have wandered in from a much grittier book). I'm not sure I would go to the trouble of reading any of the others though. It was a bit like Midsomer Murders without the humour. There was a lot of telling and not so much showing and some things (the fact that Sidney fought bravely in the war, the question of homosexuality, the fact that Amanda will never marry a vicar) were treated very heavy-handedly. Sidney acquires a curate, Leonard, who pops up occasionally, but is never developed as a character. The excuses for inserting Sidney into investigations became more and more outlandish and there was a tendency for him to deduce or intuit the guilty party, whereupon they immediately and unreservedly confessed and explained exactly how and why they had done it.
    • 4/5
      James Norton has done for Sidney Chambers what Timothy Hutton once did for Archie Goodwin: got me reading the books behind the TV series. And I was completely surprised to discover that James Runcie only published the first set of short stories in 2012 (me being even less observant of publication dates when reading Kindle books) - I was so taken in by the 1950s setting, characters and dialogue that I thought I was reading contemporary fiction! Also, I'm still not entirely won over by short stories - reading six or so different 'novels' in one book might make picking up and putting down a lot easier, but the reader also gets to notice the author's 'quirks' a lot quicker, especially with the detective genre.I do love the characters, however, and not just because one of them looks like James Norton in my mind. The hero of the hour is definitely Canon 'Oh Sidney!' Chambers, with less of the double act implied by the TV series, which is fine by me. His licence to meddle is Inspector Keating of the Cambridgeshire police, with other regular supporting characters including his 'friend' Amanda. She is a wonderful creation, privileged and cruelly selfish with respects to Sidney (who wouldn't be?), but also funny, forthright and clever. The themes of the stories vary - euthanasia, homosexuality and art forgery, along with the usual murders - but the formula runs along the usual amateur detective line. Still enjoyable, though, and I would love to live in 1950s Grantchester, even with all the gossip and shady characters. Sidney is a true Christian - or incredibly naive with a lucky streak - and Keating is a nice balance, all work-hardened cynic and miserable married man. Very enjoyable - onto book two!
    • 4/5
      Sidney Chambers is a vicar in his early 30s, working in the parish of Grantchester (near Cambridge) in 1954. When a young man dies, apparently suicide, a woman asks him to look into it, saying she's sure the man wouldn't kill himself even though it appears to be an open and shut case. Sidney pursues the clues and enlists the help of his good friend, Inspector Geordie Keating.I only outlined the first case, but there are six each running between 50 and 80 pages or so, covering about a year in span altogether. There is an old-fashioned mystery feel to them, even though the book itself came out only four years ago. Despite the fact that these are mysteries - not, in all cases, murder - there's a sort of quiet, homey feel to them that I think is often brought out by the character of the vicar himself. Sidney is drawn reluctantly into sleuthing: he muses that as a vicar he needs to think the best of people, so in some ways investigating turns this on its head. Sidney's challenges as vicar/sleuth and his interactions with different people - his housekeeper, his curate - are really well done (though in some ways, the TV series Grantchester actually got this better, I think). An enjoyable weekend read.
    • 5/5
      What a good old fashioned story!
      The story is well thought out and the characters are believable especially the dog!
      Don't remember seeing Grantchester on tv, but I will certainly look out for it and other books in this series.
      Highly recommended.
      I was given a digital copy of this novel by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review, which I am very happy to give.
    • 4/5
      The book was enjoyable but I would have enjoyed it more if I had not seen the BBC production first. The series follows the book very closely with a few changes in a some of the stories. I really liked the evocation of the period, the depiction of the characters, and just the mood of the book.
    • 3/5
      A nice enough collection of short stories about the fictional crimes solved by Revd Sidney Chambers during the 1950s, but nothing seriously good to write home about. I think I started off enjoying it but, as I went through the different scenarios, they became very similar and I became rather annoyed with Sidney. He's exceedingly bland, plus I was very cross at how casually he treated poor Amanda who was desperately in love with him, but he doesn't have the emotional wherewithal to deal with it. Sigh. She could do a lot better.Mind you, Inspector Keating is a good character, and I liked Sidney's housekeeper too - they both have a lot to put up with. However, I won't be staying around for the remaining five books in the series.
    • 5/5
      Well-written, enjoyable read about a church vicar who teams up with the local constable to solve mysteries. The series Grantchester is based on this book. The book is divided into 6 chapters, 4 of which correspond loosely to the television series. There are 2 more books written, and a 4th due to be published in April. PBS is planning a second season based on the second book.
    • 4/5
      Very Masterpiece Theater, very British. Like reading the episode. I like Sidney Chambers and the people of Grantchester. Can he mix detecting and being a priest?
    • 4/5
      Several people enthused about the TV series so I hunted it down, the station isn't generally visible on the planner on my TV but can be found with a little work. and I enjoyed it, and promptly forgot to set up reminders about it, sadly. The first story in this collection is the first TV episode. A story that unfortunately has whiffs of casual racism against the drunken Irish.The next story involves a new years party and a missing ring, there's also stories of a sudden death at a jazz concert, and several others, all kept my attention and made me want more. The description of the Backgammon games entertained me greatly. The moral dilemmas by Sidney himself about his role as a pastor for his flock and where the boundaries are when he also detects are quite interesting.I'm so sorry I missed the rest of the series.... must try to find it when it does the rounds again.
    • 3/5
      It's 1953 and Canon Sidney Chambers is quite happy with his life in the vicarage at Grantchester. He has his church duties, his jazz, and a weekly backgammon game at the pub with the local Inspector. But following the funeral of one of his parishioners, a friend of the deceased asks Sidney to look into the apparent suicide as she suspects murder. Thus is Sidney pulled into solving a multitude of crimes over the course of a year and left wondering whether a priest can fulfill his duties and investigate the darker side of life.I picked this up because I'd heard good things about the TV series based on the books. The novel itself is solid but nothing really exciting. Sidney is a wonderful character and I found him and all the characters in his life interesting but somehow the novel lacked a certain something. Perhaps given the time period the novel is set, I was expecting something a bit more like Agatha Christie and found it lacking the sparkle of her novels. That being said, I can see the mysteries have serious potential as a TV series so I do still plan to watch it at some point.
    • 3/5
      Charming but these are short stories strung together as a book, so each mystery is quite short.
    • 2/5
      Well, James Runcie certainly sold me the dummy here. The first story in this collection was very well written, with a tightly developed plot and a particularly engaging protagonist in the shape of Canon Sidney Chambers who shows great sensitivity to the widow of the victim.However, the subsequent stories marked a great falling off and descent into simplistic trivia. I enjoyed the period descriptions of Cambridge in the 1950s, but the charm of those vignettes did not suffice to compensate for facile stories and implausible characters. I doubt if further volumes in this series will be cluttering my Kindle any time soon.
    • 5/5
      I am glad to have met Canon Sidney Chambers, a priest who is an accidental sleuth. The Grantchester Mysteries begin in the early fifties when Sidney Chambers, who has received a minor canonry from an African diocese, begins his ministry as Vicar of Grantchester near Cambridge. Chambers is a veteran who has seen active service, a bachelor unable to choose romantically between a young German widow and an old London friend Amanda Keating. He is conscientious about his ministry, wanting to be available pastorally to his people and to frame all the day to day work of the parish as part of the mission of the Kingdom of God.However, Sidney finds himself drawn into different crimes: partly because of his association with his best friend, Inspector Geordie Keating, with whom he shares a weekly beer and game of backgammon, and partly because a clergyman can go where others cannot. For example, the mother of a young woman he is preparing to marry dies suddenly. The woman’s fiancé is a doctor and her mother would not give her approval for the marriage. The match and dispatch aspects of his ministry give him access to the young murderous couple while his friendship with a policeman gives him a reason to question the coroner. The stories are easy to read. Each crime is only short, and the characters move comfortably in and out of the stories depending on whether they are set in Cambridge or London or in the great house of the local gentry. Their tone is light-hearted, and I chuckled gently at many points. Some of the dialogue made me laugh out loud. This clergyman loves jazz and cricket and dines occasionally at his old College where he teaches New Testament. He wonders whether he is a bit eccentric among clergy. In fact, part of the pleasure of reading The Shadow of Death is the authenticity of the picture created of parish ministry in post-war England. James Runcie, son of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, may well be writing from his observations growing up as a clergy kid. He has certainly created an engaging priest-detective, a worthy successor to G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown. Mr Runcie has promised another five Grantchester Mysteries spanning the period of English history from the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981. I look forward to following Canon Chambers and his sleuthing.
    • 4/5
      Sidney Chambers is a Church of England clergyman and vicar of Grantchester,near Cambridge. He also involves himself in the investigation of various crimes in the area. Robbery abduction and murder are all grist to his mill it seems.Various reviewers have compared him to Agatha Christie and G.K.Chesterton but I cannot really agree. Yes Christie and Runcie both write what are at bottom 'cosies', but one of the stories we have here is much more unpleasant that anything Christie ever wrote. As for Chesterton,certainly Father Brown and Sidney Chambers are both priests,albeit Brown is a Catholic one. However Chesterton's invention is considerably cleverer methinks.This is a very difficult one to review in that on finishing this volume,I could not really decide whether I liked it or not. I would say that the character needs to be developed further as at the moment he is rather flat and does not quite work. That being said,there is great potential here and I await with interest the next selection of cases for Sidney Chambers.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book a lot. It's set in 1953. No sex, no bad language. Good mysteries, & good natured. It was like Fr Brown; it was like Agatha Christie; but it mostly made me think of Barbara Pym. I'll buy the next mystery in this series without doubt. If my grandmother was still alive, I'd give her a copy.
    • 4/5
      I am not a big cozy reader, though there are a few series that I still keep up with, but I can definitely see this series joining them. In this series debut, set in 1953 England, Sidney Chambers is a canon, though he is the first to admit he is not a very good one as he feels he could always to more for his parishioners. The villagers are varied but all interesting, there are a few different mysteries needing solving, so Sidney along with his backgammon inspector playing friend work together to solve them. I can definitely see this joining the ranks of the BBC mysteries aired on television. A delightful and fun romp through a small English village will appeal to cozy lovers. ARC from NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      Canon Sidney Chambers always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seems he is always at a place where a murder has been committed. Inspector Keating is always asking Sidney for help in each case. Sidney has lots of help from his sister Jennifer, his curate Leonard, his friend Amanda, and various other people help him at different times. Sidney solves crimes, all the while questioning his life choices and his lack of a romantic tie. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I would love to read more by this author.Thank you to Net Galley and Bloomsbury for allowing me to read and review this wonderful book.
    • 4/5
      This was an entertaining set of novellas about Sidney Chambers, Canon of Grantchester in Cambridge. The mysteries are engaging, and the setting is delightful. I visited Cambridge last summer, and I can attest to the delights of a Chelsea bun at Fitzbillie's.
    • 3/5
      Interesting premise, the priest is a detective. The writer ventures into cultural aspect of the 1950s in addition to some thoughts on literature and morality. No deep theology here but a rather gentle narration of the thoughts of a man of the church.
      The book is a series of short cases, with some more interesting than others.
    • 4/5
      Really 6 short stories rather than 1 novel. I really enjoyed the first 5 but could have done without the 6th.
    • 5/5
      I am glad to have met Canon Sidney Chambers, a priest who is an accidental sleuth. The Grantchester Mysteries begin in the early fifties when Sidney Chambers, who has received a minor canonry from an African diocese, begins his ministry as Vicar of Grantchester near Cambridge. Chambers is a veteran who has seen active service, a bachelor unable to choose romantically between a young German widow and an old London friend Amanda Keating. He is conscientious about his ministry, wanting to be available pastorally to his people and to frame all the day to day work of the parish as part of the mission of the Kingdom of God.However, Sidney finds himself drawn into different crimes: partly because of his association with his best friend, Inspector Geordie Keating, with whom he shares a weekly beer and game of backgammon, and partly because a clergyman can go where others cannot. For example, the mother of a young woman he is preparing to marry dies suddenly. The woman’s fiancé is a doctor and her mother would not give her approval for the marriage. The match and dispatch aspects of his ministry give him access to the young murderous couple while his friendship with a policeman gives him a reason to question the coroner. The stories are easy to read. Each crime is only short, and the characters move comfortably in and out of the stories depending on whether they are set in Cambridge or London or in the great house of the local gentry. Their tone is light-hearted, and I chuckled gently at many points. Some of the dialogue made me laugh out loud. This clergyman loves jazz and cricket and dines occasionally at his old College where he teaches New Testament. He wonders whether he is a bit eccentric among clergy. In fact, part of the pleasure of reading The Shadow of Death is the authenticity of the picture created of parish ministry in post-war England. James Runcie, son of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, may well be writing from his observations growing up as a clergy kid. He has certainly created an engaging priest-detective, a worthy successor to G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown. Mr Runcie has promised another five Grantchester Mysteries spanning the period of English history from the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981. I look forward to following Canon Chambers and his sleuthing.