Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie

The first of the Grantchester Mysteries, and inspiration for the PBS/Masterpiece television series, finds Vicar Sidney Chambers beginning his career, as both a spiritual leader and a detective.

It is 1953, the coronation year of Queen Elizabeth II . Sidney Chambers, vicar of Grantchester and honorary canon of Ely Cathedral, is a thirty-two-year-old bachelor. Tall, with dark brown hair, eyes the color of hazelnuts, and a reassuringly gentle manner, Sidney is an unconventional clerical detective. He 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 jewelry theft at a New Year's Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a jazz promoter's daughter, and a shocking art forgery that puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty, but he nonetheless manages to find time for a keen interest in cricket, warm beer, and hot jazz-as well as a curious fondness for a German widow three years his junior.

With a whiff of Agatha Christie and a touch of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown, The Grantchester Mysteries introduces a wonderful new hero into the world of detective fiction.

James Runcie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of eleven books that have been widely translated. The first in the 'The Grantchester Mysteries' series, Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death, was released in 2012, and was quickly followed by Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night, Sidney Chambers and The Dilemma of Evil, Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins, Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation, and Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love. Grantchester, a prime-time series starring James Norton as Sidney Chambers, premiered in October 2014 on ITV/PBS, with a second season showing in March 2016 and a third in the autumn of 2017. In early 2019, the fourth season will premiere. James Runcie joined BBC Radio 4 as Commissioning Editor for Arts in May 2016.

He splits his time between London and Scotland. The Journey to Grantchester is his most recent book. @james_runcie www.jamesruncie.comwww.grantchestermysteries.com