Download Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death The Grantchester Mysteries James Runcie 9781608198566 Books

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Product details Series Grantchester (Book 1) Paperback 400 pages Publisher Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (April 24, 2012) Language English ISBN-10 1608198561

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death The Grantchester Mysteries James Runcie 9781608198566 Books Reviews

• I bought this after seeing the Masterpiece Mystery premiere and I was not disappointed. I found that some of the most wonderful lines spoken in the TV program came straight from the book. I do want to state clearly that the series is only a "mystery" in that Sidney involves himself in amateur detecting. So many critical reviews are about the weakness of the mystery component. This series is NOT a mystery series, it is a series about an appealing and interesting character, his struggles and contradictions, his journey in life, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. A cast of amusing characters, including his dog, Dickens, add humor and warmth. Please don't draw comparisons with other mystery writers. This is a story with mysteries, not a mystery story!
• These are enjoyable mystery stories more in the British "cozy" mystery style of, say, Agatha Christie than the somewhat faster-paced, more romantic, edgy and slightly noir-ish British mystery TV series, "Grantchester". I am talking degrees here, the basic people and situations are the same, but it may be enough difference to disappoint some fans of the TV series. Probably most Americans, like myself, try the book series because we so enjoy the TV series. I have enjoyed this first book in the series, but to a lesser degree than the TV series. (My mystery reading tastes are usually more hard-boiled, but on the other hand, I also like Jane Austen.) On TV the excellent pairing of James Norton as Chambers and Robson Green as the detective, and their friendship, adds tremendously to the interest in the series.
  Without giving any specifics, there is a quite different emphasis on Sidney's various romantic interests, at least through this first book and the first part of the third series on TV; the same people but different focus. Though you will certainly find Amanda and "the German widow", Hildegard. For example, in this first book, at least, Sidney is much less challenged by his robust romantic inclinations for attractive women, although that is certainly touched on. Leonard, the curate, so far shows no particular sexual orientation,as he does on TV. Perhaps some of these things will show up in the later books.
  Sidney still loves jazz, thank goodness, perhaps even more than on Grantchester. (It can be murder.)
  I bought the book on and Audible, and mostly listened to it. The audio reader, Peter Wickham is quite good actually, and his British accent is not at all hard for American ears, but his tone is so relaxed in the way he presents these stories that I find him somewhat lulling on this material.
  By the way, the book is really a series of several long short stories, each three or four chapters, with its own mystery, not always a murder. But the stories are designed so they all flow smoothly together, so this is arguably as much a novel as short stories. Each story is very well done and has a lot of material about the time period (1950s in the first book; the decades change in later books) and Sidney's inner thoughts and turmoils. These often have nothing to do with the mystery. That's true in the TV series also, but not to the same extent.
• It is England the early 1950s. The ravages, personal and national, of World War II are still visible and felt. A young bachelor canon is assigned to the small parish of Grantchester , near Cambridge. He still experiences flashbacks to the war, where he served with distinction. He finds a bit too much solace in the bottle. His sermons tend to be largely about love, trust and forgiveness, but he seems to have trouble trusting and forgiving himself.
  
  Unexpectedly, he finds himself embroiled in murder, and discovers he can go places and talk to people in ways the police cannot.
  
  If you’re a fan of “The Grantchester Mysteries, you will recognize the story line. The first series has shown on PBS here in the United States; the second has recently completed filming in the U.K. and will be aired in 2016 on ITV and (it’s hoped) PBS. Actor James Norton plays the title character of Canon Sidney Chambers.
  
  The series is based on the short story collections of author and film producer James Runcie. The first book in the series is “Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death,” a collection of six mystery stories featuring the canon, four of which were filmed as episodes in the PBS series.
  
  In “The Shadow of Death,” what looks like an obvious suicide turns out to be something else entirely. In “A Question of Trust,” an expensive engagement ring goes missing at an engagement party. “First, Do No Harm” concerns the suspicions of the local coroner about elderly people dying a little too soon before their times. In “A Matter of Time,” a young woman is strangled in a London nightclub in Soho, apparently in full view of everyone there (including Sidney, who loves jazz). “The Lost Holbein” concerns the forgery and theft of a valuable painting of Anne Boleyn. And in “Honourable Men,” a local aristocrat is killed during a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Casear.
  
  In the first story, Chambers develops a friendship with the local police inspector, Geordie Keating, a friendship that becomes a central feature of each of the stories.
  
  The first four stories formed the basis of the four television episodes of “The Grantchester Mysteries,” but as television producers tend to do, liberties were taken with the written stories. Relationships were condensed and combined; story lines were greatly simplified. And few of Sidney’s occasional spiritual ruminations are included on television. While a fan of the TV series, I found myself liking Runcie’s stories more – they’re more thoughtful, more nuanced, and a bit more provocative. And a one-night stand between Sidney and a jazz singer in London that is featured in one of the television episodes is nowhere to be found in the written stories.
  
  Runcie has published two other Sidney Chambers mysteries – “The Perils of Night” (2013) and “The Problem of Evil” (2014), with the fourth in the series, “The Forgiveness of Sins,” being published this year. He’s also written four novels. In 2014, he explained in an article for the Telegraph how the inspiration for Sidney Chambers came from his father, the late Robert Runcie, the former archbishop of Canterbury.
  
  If you’re familiar with the format of John Mortimer’s “Rumpole of the Bailey “stories, you’ll be comfortable with the format of “The Grantchester Mysteries” – a collection of short stories that share characters and themes and come to seem like a novel.