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Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night
- Author
- James Runcie
- Narrator
- Joe Jameson
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 28 March 2023
- Run Time
- 10 hours 5 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
The second book in The Grantchester Mystery Series, and the inspiration for the primetime PBS/Masterpiece television series, Grantchester.
The loveable full time priest and part time detective Canon Sidney Chambers continues his sleuthing adventures in late 1950's Cambridge.
Accompanied by his faithful Labrador Dickens, and working in tandem with the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called on to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King's College Chapel; a case of arson at a glamor photographer's studio; and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester's finest spin bowler, in the middle of a crucial game of cricket. As he pursues his quietly probing inquiries, Sidney also has to decide on the vexed question of marriage. Can he choose between the rich, glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, a beguiling German widow three years his junior? To help him make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a complex web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up.
Here are six interlocking adventures that combine mystery with morality, and criminality with charm.
Critics Review
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Taken individually, each of these clerical whodunits poses a clever puzzle for armchair detectives. Viewed as a collective study of British life as it was lived when Elizabeth II first ascended the throne, these stories present a consistently charming and occasionally cutting commentary on 'a postwar landscape full of industry, promise and concrete.
New York Times Book Review
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Runcie is a master at capturing the mood of the 1950s, replete with the loathing and fear of Communism—as well as the enthusiasm of its advocates. The author is a master wordsmith, writing in delicate, lyrical prose…Readers definitely are in for a treat when they meet this gentlemanly but worldly man of the cloth. I cannot but hope there are many more cases in his future.
Mystery Scene
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Richly atmospheric… Runcie’s intimate view of post-WWII English society will appeal to admirers of Barbara Pym. His clerical sleuth would be welcome in a novel-length puzzle one day.
Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)
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Successfully captures Cold War sensibilities. This old-fashioned historical moves at a methodical pace, dense with long theological dialogs.
Library Journal
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Only a churl could resist Sidney, whose musings on love, evil and morality, penchant for quoting snippets of poetry, preference for whiskey over the endless cups of tea he is offered, and ratiocinative success at unraveling crimes make him endearing.
Kirkus Reviews
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Details
- Author
- James Runcie
- Narrator
- Joe Jameson
- Duration
- 10 hours 5 minutes
- Release Date
- 28 March 2023
- ISBN
- 9781639733200
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives, Historical crime and mysteries, Crime and mystery: cosy mystery, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Crime and / or mystery fiction, Rural communities / rural life, Fiction: literary and general non-genre
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night by James Runcie, read by Joe Jameson.The second book in The Grantchester Mystery Series, and the inspiration for the primetime PBS/Masterpiece television series, Grantchester.The loveable full time priest and part time detective Canon Sidney Chambers continues his sleuthing adventures in late 1950's Cambridge. Accompanied by his faithful Labrador Dickens, and working in tandem with the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called on to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King's College Chapel; a case of arson at a glamor photographer's studio; and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester's finest spin bowler, in the middle of a crucial game of cricket. As he pursues his quietly probing inquiries, Sidney also has to decide on the vexed question of marriage. Can he choose between the rich, glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, a beguiling German widow three years his junior? To help him make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a complex web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up.Here are six interlocking adventures that combine mystery with morality, and criminality with charm.
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