Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love by James Runcie --- 344 pages

The sixth volume in Runcie's Granchester Mysteries is set in 1971. The series follows the adventures of Anglican priest and amateur detective Sidney Chambers. Runcie planned the series an arc of novels that would cover the period beginning with Queen Elizabeth's coronation (1953) and ending with the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (1981).

The Persistence of Love contains six episodes covering 1971-1973. Twenty years have passed since readers first encountered Sidney Chambers, just out of the army after seeing combat in World War II and embarking on his vocation in his first parish, in the village of Grantchester in Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death. The unconventional, jazz-loving, war-weary thirty-year-old who took a guilty delight in his side adventures with his friend Geordie, the local police inspector, has inevitably matured. Marriage, fatherhood, the care of his parish, and steady advancement through the clerical hierarchy in spite of his unorthodox hobby has made him more responsible, more introspective, but still just a touch rebellious at fifty, even though he's on track for a bishop's miter.

Although Sidney has experienced disappointments and loss along the way, he has depended on the love found in faith, friendship and family to see him through. Then he is confronted by the greatest personal tragedy he has ever known. Will love suffice?

The books are the basis of the popular Granchester Mysteries series produced for ITV in Great Britain, and shown on PBS in the United States --- although the story line in the television series diverges in some significant ways from the story line in the books.

Not exactly a cozy mystery, but definitely a quiet and reflective one. It's best to read the books in order.

Click HERE to see the review in Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to see the review in Publishers Weekly.

Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation by James Runcie --- 315 pages

In this fifth installment in his Grantchester Mysteries Series, Sidney Chambers has been promoted from the vicarage in Grantchester to the position of Archdeacon of Ely, but still in the familiar environs of Cambridgeshire. The book opens with his family and friends gathering to celebrate Sidney's 46th birthday, an occasion somewhat tempered by an attack of toothache and the looming prospect of Lent. Busy with his ecclesiastical duties and his family, Sidney nevertheless still finds time to assist his friend Inspector Geordie Keating with his investigations.

The world is changing rapidly: Sidney has arrived at the "Swinging Sixties," when it seems every long-established rule or tradition is being questioned, and the social order turned upside down. 

In the six stories that make up this book, Sidney must not only solve mysteries but also come to grips with changing notions of what constitutes both crime and sin, conventional beliefs and new modes of spirituality, and the political and social disillusionments of the Cold War, not just among his parishioners but even among his closest friends and family.  There are also intriguing encounters with current events and pop culture, such as the Apollo 11 flight to the moon, the rock group Pink Floyd, and an up and coming young actor named Ian McKellan. 

The Grantchester of the novels has diverged in some significant ways from the Grantchester of the popular PBS television series, and if you are a fan of both it's rather like watching two alternate versions of reality unfolding side by side. There's more action and suspense in the televised Grantchester; but the novels have their own more ruminative charm.

Click HERE for the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE for the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review from the Historical Novel Society.   

Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation by James Runcie --- 315 pages

In this fifth installment in his Grantchester Mysteries Series, Sidney Chambers has been promoted from the vicarage in Grantchester to the position of Archdeacon of Ely, but still in the familiar environs of Cambridgeshire. The book opens with his family and friends gathering to celebrate Sidney's 46th birthday, an occasion somewhat tempered by an attack of toothache and the looming prospect of Lent. Busy with his ecclesiastical duties and his family, Sidney nevertheless still finds time to assist his friend Inspector Geordie Keating with his investigations.

The world is changing rapidly: Sidney has arrived at the "Swinging Sixties," when it seems every long-established rule or tradition is being questioned, and the social order turned upside down. 

In the six stories that make up this book, Sidney must not only solve mysteries but also come to grips with changing notions of what constitutes both crime and sin, conventional beliefs and new modes of spirituality, and the political and social disillusionments of the Cold War, not just among his parishioners but even among his closest friends and family.  There are also intriguing encounters with current events and pop culture, such as the Apollo 11 flight to the moon, the rock group Pink Floyd, and an up and coming young actor named Ian McKellan. 

The Grantchester of the novels has diverged in some significant ways from the Grantchester of the popular PBS television series, and if you are a fan of both it's rather like watching two alternate versions of reality unfolding side by side. There's more action and suspense in the televised Grantchester; but the novels have their own more ruminative charm.

Click HERE for the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE for the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review from the Historical Novel Society.   

Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (Grantchester Mysteries, Volume 2) by James Runcie --- 356 pages

Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night is a collection of six fairly long short stories, set during the years 1955 to 1961, in the village of Grantchester not far from Cambridge University in England. The sleuth in these quiet mystery stories in Canon Sidney Chambers, a World War II veteran whose wartime experiences have led him to the Anglican priesthood. As the vicar of Grantchester, he is perfectly situated to insinuate himself into places where the police would encounter suspicion, and to persuade troubled souls to confide in him.

Runcie is particularly adept at invoking the atmosphere of the Cold War years filtering into the quiet backwaters of an English village or the rarefied atmosphere of University politics. But Sidney himself is also an intriguing character, by turns empathetic and totally clueless, pious and worldly, faithful  but full of doubts.

The thread connecting all the stories in this collection is Sidney' growing attraction to Hildegard Staunton, the German war bride of one of Sidney's first murder victims in the previous book in this series. The gradual progress of their relationship as Sidney comes to understand that celibacy is not a prerequisite of his vocation, is one of the charms of the series.

Fans of the Granchester Mysteries ITV television series (shown here on PBS Mystery!), loosely based on Runcie's clerical sleuth, will deduce from this that there are major plot divergences between the books and the television series. But enjoyment of the television universe does not preclude equal enjoyment of the parallel universe of the books. Two more books are planned for a six book series giving us a bird's eye view of British life from Queen Elizabeth's Coronation in 1953 to the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the Historical Novel Society web site.

Click HERE to read a review from the Curled Up with a Good Book blog.

Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil (Grantchester Mysteries Book 3) by James Runcie --- 287 pages

Canon Sidney Chambers, Anglican priest and amateur detective, is enjoying marriage with his German bride, Hidegard, in this third volume is the Grantchester Mysteries series. He has promised Hidegard that his sleuthing days are over, and he tries to keep that promise. Unfortunately, two dead doves left on the vicarage doorstep draw him back into the investigation of what appears to be a disgruntled killer with a grudge against the Church in the title story of this selection of four novellas.

As more than one reviewer has pointed out, these are not, strictly speaking, detective stories; Runcie's priest (modeled on his own father, the late, celebrated Archbishop of Canterbury), is not really interested in crime or police work, but in the struggle to understand good and evil, sin and forgiveness, the nature of love, and redemption.

There's also a quiet but delicious streak of humor running through the books, reminding us that the ability to laugh is very often the saving grace of humankind through all our faults and foibles.

Runcie has planned a six book series, looking at the sea changes to British society through Sidney's eyes, from 1953 (Queen Elizabeth's coronation) to 1981 (the marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer).

Click HERE for background on Canon Sidney Chambers and a summary of the four books in the series thus far.

Click HERE for a review of The Problem of Evil from the Independent (UK).

Click HERE for a review from The Scotsman.

Click HERE for a review from the Euro Crime (UK) fan web site.

Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins (Grantchster Mysteries, Volume 4) by James Runcie --- 400 pages

Fourth is the Grantchester Mysteries series featuring Canon Sidney Chambers, an Anglican priest with a habit of getting mixed up in police business. The setting is postwar Britain, first Cambridge and later Ely in the Fen country. This volume features six loosely connected episodes. It is now the mid1960s; Sidney has been promoted in the church hierarchy and he assumes this requires him to put his investigative ventures behind him. Easier said than done, especially when the Dean (his ecclesiastical boss) wants Sidney's investigative skills employed on his behalf. The cases in this book run the gamut from marital infidelity to domestic violence, bullying and sex abuse, theft, fraud, fire and flood, as well as murder.  As always with Sidney, it's not just about right and wrong, but all the various degrees of guilt and innocence --- including his own.

Runcie, the son of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, grew up within the world he evokes with quiet perception. Two more books are planned in the series. The Grantchester Mysteries have been serialized on ITV in Great Britain and shown on PBS in the U.S.

Click HERE to read a review from the Seattle Times.

Click HERE to learn more about Ely Cathedral; its earliest foundation dates to 672 A.D.

Click HERE to learn more about the Fenlands in eastern England.

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (Grantchester Mysteries, Volume 1) by James Runcie --- 392 pages

James Runcie, author and filmmaker, is writing a series of cozy mysteries with a clergyman sleuth, set in the village of Grantchester near Cambridge, England.

Runcie, son of the late Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991, based his hero in part upon his father. His inside view of the Anglican Church is both affectionate and unsparing.  Some have compared this series to Colin Dexter's acclaimed Inspector Morse series set in Oxford.  Morse of course loves opera and Sidney Chambers is a fan of jazz, but more fundamentally, Morse is an agnostic who would like to believe while Sidney is a believer struggling to maintain his faith.

What gives this series its bite is the opportunity to looks back at the very different social mores and assumptions that still held sway in Britain (and elsewhere) sixty years ago, even after the shock waves generated by World War II. The Shadow of Death is set in 1953, the year of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. Runcie is planning a series of at least six books, taking Sidney up to the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana, and a Britain that the inhabitants of 1953 could not have imagined.

The first book is the basis for a six episode television series by ITV that premiered last fall in the UK and this January on PBS Masterpiece Mystery in the US. Two more books have been published: Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night and Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil.

Find out more about the Grantchester Mysteries by clicking HERE.