Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation: Grantchester Mysteries 5

by James Runcie

Overview

Grantchester Mysteries 5

The eagerly anticipated fifth installment in the Grantchester mystery series, now a major PBS television series.

It's the summer of love in late 1960s. The Apollo 11 astronauts are preparing to land on the moon, the war in Biafra dominates the news and Basil D'Oliveira has just been dropped from the England cricket team before a test series in apartheid South Africa. In the midst of all this change, Sidney Chambers, the loveable English clergyman, continues his amateur sleuthing investigations.

A bewitching divorcée enlists Sidney's help in convincing her son to leave a hippie commune' at a soiree on Grantchester Meadows during May Week celebrations, a student is divested of a family heirloom; Amanda's marriage runs into trouble; Sidney and Hildegard holiday behind the Iron Curtain; Mrs. Maguire's husband returns from the dead; and an arson attack in Cambridge leads Sidney to uncover a cruel cast of blackmail involving his former curate.

In the rare gaps between church and crime, Sidney struggles with a persistent case of toothache, has his first flutter at the Newmarket races, and witnesses the creation of a classic rock song.

Charming, witty, intelligent, and filled with a strong sense of compassion, these six new stories are guaranteed to satisfy and delight this clerical detective's many fans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632865670
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/14/2016
Series:	Grantchester Mysteries Series , #5
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	409,640
File size:	552 KB

About the Author

James Runcie is an award-winning filmmaker and the author of Sidney Chambers series, which is now the major PBS series Grantchester starring James Norton as Sidney Chambers. Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death, the first in the Grantchester Mysteries series, was published in 2012, soon followed by Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night, Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil, Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins and Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love.
James Runcie is an award-winning film-maker and the author of seven novels. Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death, the first in 'The Grantchester Mysteries' series, was published in 2012, soon followed by Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night, Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil, Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins and Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation. In October 2014, ITV launched Grantchester, a prime-time series starring James Norton as Sidney Chambers, with the second season airing in March 2016. In May 2016 James Runcie became Commissioning Editor for Arts at BBC Radio 4. He lives in London and Edinburgh.
www.jamesruncie.com
www.grantchestermysteries.com
@james_runcie

Editorial Reviews

04/18/2016
Runcie continues to deepen his characterization of Sidney Chambers in the six short stories set in the 1960s and 1970s that comprise the engrossing fifth volume of the Grantchester Mysteries (after 2015’s Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sin). The rounded depiction is most in evidence in the title story, as the clergyman, now elevated to the position of Archdeacon of Ely, is asked by a woman he finds disturbingly attractive to help get her teenage son away from a commune, a request that becomes much more delicate when a murder occurs. Runcie is also adept at crafting mysteries without a corpse, as in the theft of a valuable necklace that coincides with a cattle stampede. In one lapse into Jessica Fletcher syndrome, Sidney’s visit to Germany, his wife’s homeland, lands him in the midst of a homicide investigation. The series’ strength lies less in the author’s devising and resolving baffling whodunits than in his portrayal of his all-too-human lead. Agent: David Godwin, David Godwin Associates (U.K.). (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Perfect reading for a sunny English garden." —Kate Saunders, The Times

"Runcie has honed his style of light, escapist, small-town crime stories to something approaching perfection." —Glasgow Herald

"Runcie works his magic using simple sentences, archetypal characters and a sense of suspense that creates an atmosphere of delicious anticipation." —Independent

"There is no reason at all why this series should not run and run and why Sidney Chambers should not occupy the same place in the pantheon as Miss Marple or Poirot." —The Catholic Herald

"Runcie continues to deepen his characterization of Sidney Chambers in the six short stories set in the 1960s and 1970s that comprise the engrossing fifth volume of the Grantchester Mysteries." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

05/01/2016
Runcie's latest story collection is the fifth in his clerical series (Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins) that forms the basis of the popular PBS program Grantchester. In the title story, our Anglican vicar falls under the influence of an attractive divorcée Barbara Wilkinson, who needs Sidney's help in getting her son out of a cult run by awareness guru Fraser Pascoe. Pascoe turns up dead with no lack of suspects. "Grantchester Meadows" is the setting where unruly Cambridge students set off a stampede by normally placid cows during May Week and an heirloom necklace goes missing in the melee. "Love and Duty" places Sidney at a Pink Floyd concert at Royal Albert Hall with friend Amanda, who reveals her affair with Leonard Finch, Sidney's curate. Sidney then connects this information to an arson case. Chambers tends his flock and his jazz collection, all while coaxing clues from individuals under questioning. VERDICT Runcie's gently paced stories, now set in the nostalgic 1960s, will appeal to cozy fans who want less blood and more village shenanigans.—Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Library Journal

2016-03-15
Six interrelated new stories about the crime-solving priest who struggles with his own frailties. The Venerable Sidney Chambers, Archdeacon of Ely, is already facing at least one of "The Dangers of Temptation" in trying to give up alcohol for Lent when a deliberately provocative ex-parishioner who asks his help with her son draws Sidney and his friend Inspector Geordie Keating into the brutal murder of the leader of a commune dubbed the "Family of Love." A post-finals celebration for students at the University of Cambridge gets out of hand in "Grantchester Meadows," in which a cattle stampede and a missing heirloom necklace call on Sidney's crime-busting talents. "The Trouble with Amanda" is Sidney's former flame Amanda Richmond's husband, Henry, whose disturbed and disturbing ex-wife suddenly drowns. Even if Sidney can prove that Henry isn't guilty, what does the news mean for the Richmonds' marriage? In "The Return," Sidney's former housekeeper gets the shock of her life when her long-lost husband reappears for unknown reasons and tempts Sidney into a flutter at the horse races. "A German Summer" is a holiday for Sidney and his family on the East German island where Sidney's wife spent her summers as a child. Sidney endangers his own safety by trying to solve a crime everyone else wants him to leave alone. In "Love and Duty," it's nearly Lent again, and again Sidney plans to stop drinking at the same time he tries to bring tact to a blackmail case whose victim wants to keep his private life private. Although the stories' allusions to free love, the moon landing, and Pink Floyd remind the reader of passing time, Sidney's inquisitiveness, humility, and appreciation of both the sacred and the secular are as constant as in his previous adventures (Sidney Chambers and the Forgiveness of Sins, 2015, etc.). The Swinging '60s give Runcie's sleuth in a cassock plenty of opportunity to stick his memorable nose in where it isn't wanted.

Kirkus Reviews