I read this book in February, 2025.

Of late, I have been writing these reviews under three headings - Characters , Personal Lives and Main Plots .

Characters .

Sidney Chambers (who will be 33 on 14.02.54) is the Vicar of Grantchester, and the son of Alec and Iris. He has a sister Jennifer, and a brother Matthew. His stipend is £550 pa - a pittance. Although few know, he fought in the last war, and won an MC. His pet labrador puppy, Dickens, is a present from Amanda Kendall.
Amanda Kendall is Jennifer's best friend and flatmate. She works at the Nat. Gallery. She is a possible love interest for Sidney.
Mrs Silvia Maguire is Sidney's daily help and housekeeper. She was born on 21.01.1901, the day Queen Victoria died.
DI Geordie Keating of Cambridge Police is married to Cathy, and they have 3 children.
Leonard Graham is Sidney's new curate, appointed during the year.
Stephen Staunton, murdered, Irish, a solicitor.
Hildegard Staunton was married to Stephen, and teaches piano. She too is a possible love interest for Sidney.
Miss Annabel Morrison is Stephen's secretary.
Pamela Morton had been having an affair with Staunton.
Clive Morton, solicitor, was Staunton's business partner.
Derek Javis is the Cambridge coroner.
Ben Blackwood, a Magdelene man, an architectural historian, is writing the history of Locket Hall, owned by Lord Teversham.

Private Lives :

The story is set in 1954. Sidney Chambers, vicar of Grantchester is 32/33. Every Thursday he meets his friend DI Geordie Keating in the RAF bar of the Eagle for a game of backgammon and a pint or two. Sidney's parents do not approve of his sister Jennifer's latest boyfriend, Johnny Johnson who runs a jazz club with his father Phil (the cat) Johnson who has a long police record but is now reformed. Sidney is a jazz lover. His brother Matthew plays is a skiffle band.

There are two love interests in Sidney's life - Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton. Amanda is Jennifer's best friend and flatmate. Amanda is as rich as Sidney is poor. They are sort of in love with each other, but call it a hearty friendship. Geordie Keating thinks Sidney should propose to Amanda, but such is her busy, whirlwind social life, how could she adjust to live as a poor vicar's wife ? Sidney and Amanda get into all sorts of scrapes together through the year, and Amanda's father tells her to marry one of her many rich suitors and never to see Sidney again. Associating with Sidney is too dangerous. Amanda ignores her father's advice. She tells Sidney that she will never marry without love, that he will have a veto over whom she marries, and that he will conduct the wedding service - but at some distant future. She admits that if Sidney married someone else first, she would be broken. This may be a possibility ? Amanda has given Sidney a black labrador puppy which he renames Dickens.

The other love interest is a widow - Hildegard Staunton. Her husband Stephen was murdered in the first of the six stories in this book. She met Stephen who was Irish in Berlin. They were to live in Ireland, but never did. She doesn't like living in Cambridge - there is too much but understandable post war prejudice against Germans. She teaches piano, but does not have many pupils. Sidney and Hildegard feel comfortable, and at home in each other's company. They do not analyse their feelings for each other, but is it love ? Hildegard returns to Berlin, but Sidney is invited to visit, and they write to each other. At the end of the book Sidney tells Geordie that he is to visit Hildegard after Christmas. Geordie asks if Amanda knows. No, says Sidney, but it's not a secret. I think it should be says Geordie.

In the course of the book Sidney acquires a curate to help him with church duties - Leonard Graham. He may have homosexual leanings, but it's 1954, and illegal. Leonard never admits to this, but without lying.

The Main Plots : There are six stories that follow one after the other, as the year progresses, often involving the same characters. I will say something about each : -

1. The Shadow of Death.

Sidney has just buried Stephen Staunton - an apparent suicide, a bottle of whisky on his desk, he blew his brains out. Stephen and Clive Morton were solicitors and business partners. Pamela Morton, Clive Morton's wife, visits Sidney. She and Stephen had been having an affair, and planned to run away together - no way would he commit suicide. DI Geordie Keating is not interested - it's an obvious suicide, full stop. Sydney has to investigate. He visits Stephen's wife Hildegard, a German - and so Sydney and Hildegard meet. She says Stephen had no enemies, but he should ask Stephen's secretary Miss Annabel Morrison. The whisky on Stephen's desk was not the distinctive malt he drank. Later Miss Morrison gives Sidney an apparent suicide note, and Stephen's personal diary. The diary was kept in pencil, and rubbed out after each day. Curiously it seemed to be sometimes split into morning and afternoon sections - AM and PM. It is Sidney that realises AM and PM could stand for something else. It's quite a neat story which I won't spoil. Throughout, Sidney keeps Hildegard informed, and they develop a friendship, perhaps it's more.

2. A Question of Trust

This is another interesting story. Sidney's old friend Nigel Thompson, an MP, has invited Sidney to a New Year's Eve party. Sidney's sister Jennifer is there with her new boyfriend Johnny Johnson, and her flatmate Amanda Kendall. Guy Hopkins gives Amanda a jewellery box and asks her to open it. It's an expensive (325 guineas) ruby and diamond engagement ring. Everyone admires it as it is passed round, but Amanda has not actually said yes. Nigel drops a bottle of Champagne - glass and mess everywhere. However the ring has now gone missing - who had it last ? When a taxi arrives for Daphne Young, Guy insists on searching her handbag before she leaves - no ring. Amanda and Guy argue, and the proposal is withdrawn. Everyone thinks that Johnny Johnson stole the ring - his father is an ex cat burglar, like father like son. When MP Nigel does not want the police involved, Jennifer volunteers Sidney's services to investigate. Daphne's father is a retired jeweller. Sidney sets up a reconstruction with a cheap ring from Woolworths. Amazingly, this too goes missing. Sidney goes to retreive it, and produces the original ring. Who stole it ? Read the story. As an aside, Daphne's introduces Sidney to her lodger, Leonard Graham who is looking for a position as a curate somewhere.

3. First do no Harm.

Inspector Keating wants Sidney's help. Old Mrs Livingstone has died. Her daughter Isobel and her doctor Michael Robinson can now get married, and they want a quick cremation. However, there are rumours that Michael "helped" Old Mrs Livingstone on her way. Someone has complained to Derek Jarvis, the coroner. How much morphine is an acceptable dosage to alleviate only suffering? Exceed that and it may be murder. A post mortem is required. Soon another of Doctor Robinson's older patients has died, and now no one want's the doctor near them in case he kills them. It's quite a puzzle for Sidney.

4. A Matter of Time

Sidney takes Inspector Keating with him to Johnny Johnson's jazz club to hear the great American star Gloria Dee perform. Jennifer is there, as is Johnny, and Phil Johnson, Johnny's disreputable father. Also there is is Claudette, Johnny's sister and her father's favourite. As the evening progresses, Sidney is enthralled with Gloria Dee's singing - a world famous artist. Next there is a scream. Someone has strangled Claudette. Geordie takes over until the local police arrive - call an ambulance, contact Scotland Yard, lock the doors, no one can leave. Inspector Williams of the Yard arrives to take charge of the murder enquiry. Everyone in the Johnson family is shattered. Her father Phil doted on Claudette. Amanda is there too. Earlier, she had seemed to recognise one of Gloria's supporting crew, but he denied knowing her. Sidney's services are volunterred - Jennifer tells him that, after all, Claudette was soon to become her sister. It turns out to be a revenge killing.

5. The Lost Holbein

Sidney is a guest of Lord Teversham at Locket Hall. Teversham is complaining of death duties,and may have to sell one of his precious paintings, or bequeath it to the nation. Sidney recommends Amanda to Lord Teversham. She works at the National gallery and will advise him. Amanda visits Locket Hall, and is very taken with a dark portrait of a mystery woman. This painting had been restored about 10 years ago on advice from an insurance assessor. Amanda tells them that the painting is a copy put back into the original frame. If she is correct, the original may be a missing painting of Anne Bolyn, and worth a fortune. Amanda goes in search of the original, working solo, and finds herself locked in a bathroom of an isolated cottage, captured by a wierd lunatic man who drugs her and almost rapes her. Read the story. Not unreasonably Amanda's father doesn't want her associating with Sidney any longer - too many dangerous things happen when he is around !

6. Honourable Men.

Sidney is participating in a local amateur dramatic version of Julius Caesar, but set in a 1930's fascist state. The director is Derek Jarvis, the coroner. Caesar is stabbed on stage. The actor is Lord Teversham, one of the prop knives had been substituted with a real one, and Lord Teversham is dead. Sidney is there, and so is very much involved. Lord Teversham was a homosexual - illegal in the 1950s. Was it a crime of passion by one of his lovers ? Chatting to Sidney, Amanda had told him that, a while ago, when drunk, her exasperated father had threatened to kill her if she still mixed with Sidney. She goes on to say that it must be very difficult for a father to kill a favourite son or daughter - "so I'm not worried". This remark solves the case for Sidney.

All in all, it' a good read, although I would prefer a single long story to six little ones. Meanwhile we must read on to follow the Sidney / Amanda / Hildegard love triangle.

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I read this book in July, 2025.

This is book 2 in the Grantchester Mysteries series by James Runcie where we follow the dual life of Sydney Chambers as a vicar and as an enthusiastic amateur detective. We also follow his private life - will he pluck up enough courage to marry, and will it be Amanda Kendall or Hildegard Staunton ? My usual three headings are - Characters , Personal Lives and Main Plots .

Characters .

Sidney Chambers (38) is the Vicar of Grantchester, and the son of Alec and Iris. He fought in the last war, and won an MC. His pet labrador dog, Dickens, was a present from Amanda Kendall.
Jennifer Chambers is Sydney's sister, and she is still dating Johnny Johnson.
Matthew Chambers is Sydney's brother.
Amanda Kendall is Jennifer's best friend and flatmate. She works at the Nat. Gallery. The daughter of Sir Cecil Kendall, she is a possible love interest for Sidney.
Mrs Silvia Maguire is Sidney's daily help and housekeeper. She was born on 21.01.1901, the day Queen Victoria died.
DI. Geordie Keating of Cambridge Police, Sidney's best friend, is married to Cathy, and they have 3 children.
Leonard Graham is Sidney's curate, possibly a homosexual but never admitted (it's illegal in the 1950s).
Hildegard Staunton (31) is the widow of Stephen, and teaches piano. She too is a possible love interest for Sidney. She lives in Berlin. Her maiden name is Leber, and she is the daughter of Hans Leber, a hero in Leipzig.
Mattias Baumann is Hildegard's brother.
Sibilla Leber is Hidegard's mother.
Trudi Leber is Hildegard's sister.
Derek Javis is the Cambridge coroner.
Chantry Vine is the Archdeacon in Ely.

Private Lives :

This book finally settles the Amanda v Hildegard contest. For a long time, rich Amanda Kendall had no rival. She and Sydney were in love, but she made it quite clear that she would not forgo her London social life to live as the wife of a relatively poor country vicar. We then met Hildegard Staunton, a widow, a gifted pianist. She and Sydney were soul mates - comfortable in each other's company. Hildegard is a German who doesn't feel welcome in post war Britain, and she returns to live in Berlin with occasional visits - Hildegard to the UK, and Sydney to Berlin. Hildegard is puzzled that Sydney is so adept at solving murders, and reading characters, but he can't recognise love when it's staring him in the face! Amanda brings things to a head when she phones Sydney at 11 pm one night. She has met Tony (Prof. Anthony Cartwright ) a physics professor whose research she is financing. He has asked her to marry him, she said yes, a London church on Sloane Street has been booked, and she wants Sydney to take the service. When Sydney meets Tony he has his misgivings, and tries to caution Amanda. She says he is just jealous that she is not marrying him, and won't be warned. They quarrel, and Amanda says she'll get someone else to take the service. Tony is only interested in Amanda's money, Sydney discovers that Tony has a wife, and so the wedding is off. Much later, Amanda apologises to Sydney, and as good as asks if it's too late for them. Sadly, yes. For the first time, Sydney says out loud that he loves Hildegard, but there are tears in his eyes when Amanda leaves.

And so Sydney goes to Berlin, but Hildegard is not there - her mother has had a stroke, and Hildegard has gone to Leipzig, in East Germany, to be with her. Her brother arranges for Sydney to join her, but in East Germany Sydney gets involved in a spy adventure, is arrested, stripped, held in prison, and interrogated. Happily, Hildegard's father Hans Leber was a war hero - a communist martyr - and so Hildegard manages to rescue Sydney. But now there are tanks on the streets, gunfire, and the Berlin Wall is going up. Hildegard and Sydney go up river, swim across, and escape. Months later they get married in Grantchester in front of all their friends. Leonard Graham, Sydney's curate takes the service and Amanda and Geordie are there to add their sincere congratulations.

The Main Plots :

There are six chapters of about 60 to 100 pages, each a separate story.

1. Perils of the Night.

This is a story based upon Cambridge's reputation as a recruiting ground for the UK secret service. A college fellow takes two of his students on a night time prank / climb of a college tower, and although an experienced climber, falls to his death. Did he fall, or was he pushed ? The Master of the college has secret service connections. Is this an attempt to ingratiate the two fellow student climbers with the enemy? The climber who fell was a well known secret service recruiter. Are we dealing with secret agents, or double agents ? One of the students disappears, but resurfaces in the final chapter in Berlin - puting Sydney's life in danger.

2. Love and Arson.

There is a fire in a summer house used by an artist but owned by Bell's Garage. It's arson, but not by petrol - in fact, it's quite ingenious. Is it an attempt to frame an unsuitable boyfriend, or an insurance scam ?

3. Unholy Week.

A victim is found dead in his bath, and while the doctor says it's natural causes, others say electrocution, and the college electrician who is rewiring the place is unfairly sacked. Hildegard is over visiting Sydney, and the electrician's sister is Hildegard's B&B host. Why did maths professor Todd act so quickly ? The victim Adam Cade was Todd's junior lecturer. It's a case of plagarism, and reputation protection.

4. The Hat Trick.

This is a homage to the game of cricket. Zafar Ali has an English girlfriend and gets a hat trick, but doesn't get to keep the ball as is tradition - it has disappeared. Ali is poisoned in three ingenious ways which together prove fatal. One of the poisons used was commonly used to sedate horses - says Amanda. This is a vital clue for Sydney. It's racial prejudice at it's worst.

5. The Uncertainty Principle.

This is the Amanda / Tony intended marriage story.

6. Appointment in Berlin.

This is the conclusion of the spy story of chapter one, with Rory Montague the student who disappeared being seen by Sydney on a train in East Germany. Stupidly he tackles Rory who denies knowing Sydney, but afterwards gives him a letter for the college Master. Rory tries to escape - shots ring out, and later Sydney is told Rory is dead, but is he really ? Sydney is arrested and found to be carrying a secret letter to the Master. It all looks a disaster, but happily Sydney is rescued by Hildegard, and they escape together back to the West from Berlin Wall era East Germany.

All in all, it's a typical Grantchester Mysteries book where Sydney is warned that his detective exploits are harming his chance of advancement in the Church. How will married life with Hildegard work out? We must read on to find out.

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I read this book in October, 2025.

This is book 3 in James Runcie's Grantchester Mysteries following the dual life of Sidney Chambers as a vicar and as an enthusiastic amateur detective. There is big news here - Sidney and Hildegard who married in the previous book, are now blessed with a baby daughter, Anna, born just before Christmas, 1963. My usual three headings are - Characters , Personal Lives and Main Plots .

Characters .

Sidney Chambers (38) is the Vicar of Grantchester, and the son of Alec, a doctor, and Iris. Sidney fought in the last war, and won an MC. His pet labrador dog, Dickens, a present from Amanda Kendall, dies but there is a new puppy - Byron.
Hildegard Chambers is Sidney's wife. She was the widow of Stephen, and still teaches piano. Her maiden name is Leber, and she is the daughter of Hans Leber, a hero in Leipzig.
Anna Chambers is Sidney and Hildegard's new baby daughter.
Jennifer Chambers is Sidney's sister - she is now engaged to Johnny Johnson.
Matthew Chambers is Sidney's brother.
Amanda Kendall is Jennifer's best friend and flatmate. She is an art historian who works at the Nat. Gallery, and the rich daughter of Sir Cecil Kendall. She is now Anna's godmother.
Mrs Silvia Maguire is Sidney's former daily help and housekeeper, born on 21.01.1901, the day Queen Victoria died. She now works for Simon Opie.
DI. Geordie Keating of Cambridge Police, Sidney's best friend, is married to Cathy, and they have 3 children.
Leonard Graham was Sidney's curate, but now has his own parish.
Sibilla Leber, 67, is Hidegard's mother.
Mattias Baumann is Hildegard's brother.
Trudi Leber is Hildegard's sister.
Derek Javis is the Cambridge coroner.
Chantry Vine is the Archdeacon in Ely.
Helena Randall is an attractive and persistent journalist.
Simon Opie is Sidney's former tutor at Cambridge.

Private Lives :

There are lots of smaller stories, such as Leonard Graham, Sidney's curate, moving on to have his own parish, and Archdeacon Chantry Vine suggesting it might also be time for Sidney, a bright prospect in the Church, to be moved to an inner city parish. However I will concentrate on three topics :-

Geordie Keating and Helena Randall.
Helena Randall is a very attractive, keen, ambitious local reporter who wants to become a crime reporter, and is seeing a lot of DI Geordie Keating. He admits she is gentle on the eye, but it's rather more than this, and Sidney often finds them alone. Geordie's wife Cathy knows about Helena and she and Sidney speak. He advises that she leaves things to run their course, and Geordie will soon come to his senses.

Sidney's dog Dickens dies.
Dickens is getting old, has athritis, and wheezes. He has an adventure playing a part in a film with Sidney. In a drowning scene, a dummy is thrown into the river, and an agitated Dickens jumps in, presumably to the rescue. Dickens gets a chill, then an infection, and then has a stroke. The vet suggests to Sidney that perhaps Dicken's time has come, it's the kindest thing to do, and so Dickens is put to sleep. Dickens, a present from Amanda, had been Sidney's patient, loyal, faithful, constant companion for 10 years, and as he says farewell Sidney recalls Kipling :
  "Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware,
  Of giving your heart for a dog to tear."
Amanda gets Sidney another dog, a puppy labrador from the same Redmond farm - it's name is Byron. Sidney has been told there is a baby on the way, and thinks it is crackers to take on a new puppy and baby at the same time.

Sidney and Hildegard, and soon baby Anna.
At the start of the book, Sidney and Hildegard have been married 6 months, and they are very, very much in love. Hildegard has stettled in well at Grantchester, has a part time teaching job at Perse Schol, still gives private piano lessons, and she organises weekly coffee mornings. When asked directly by someone else, Sidney says that yes, he would like children, and he is surprised at his answer. There is a story about nudes and nakedness in performance art. Back home, Hildegard goes to bed first, and then calls Sidney. He finds the lights out, the bedroom lit by candles, and Hildegard is lying naked on the bed surrounded by apples. She asks Sidney, "am I naked or nude ?".

Sidney had played a part in a film, and, back home after attending it's film premiere, Hildegard tells him why she has been so tired. She is pregnant, with the due date December, 15th, just before Christmas. Hildegard's mother Sibilla Leber comes over from Germany for the birth and to stay for Christmas. Of course Sidney is out when the time comes - he is collecting his new puppy from the Redmonds. The Redmonds get a phone call telling Sidney that Hildegard is in hospital, but with other excitement, there is a delay in passing on the message. It's a big baby, it will be a breech birth, and so Caesarian delivery is best. Sidney is anxious that they are not telling him everything, but happily all is well, and baby Anna is born at 2 am to an exhausted Hilegard. Sidney is delighted beyond words. Amanda is to be the godmother. Everyone is at Sidney's Christmas service and he preaches a brilliant, and very appropriate, sermon about the birth of a child, and the Christ child.

The Main Plots :

There are four chapters of about 75 pages, each a separate story, but linked.

1. The problem of Evil.

This is about the fore-warned killing of vicars, and the carving of the mark of the devil on their chests. The plot opens with Sidney and Hildegard arriving home to find two dead doves posed on their doormat. Geordie is concerned when Sidney tells him, as a vicar, Philip Agnew, had been found suffocated in his church. Sidney asks Jerome Benson, the local taxidermist, about the significance of dead doves, and also meets Jerome's brother, Jimmy Benson a vagabond. Geordie thinks Jimmy might be a suspect for the killing, but when he goes to interview him, he has disappeared. Sidney holds Agnew's funeral, and Patrick Harland gives him a lift home. Harland says that Agnew had confessed to be a homosexual on his death bed. Could that be a murder motive ? Next a decapitated blackbird is left on reporter Helena Randall's door step. There is another death, the Rev Isaiah Shaw, also with the mark of the devil carved on his chest. Geordie offers Sidney police protection. Sidney next gets a muffled man's phone call - "meet me at 4 pm, I know the man you seek." Sidney goes there and finds Jimmy Benson's dead body. Meanwhile Patrick Harland had become a suspect - he had trained to be a vicar, but failed, was he seeking revenge of the Church? Sidney consults his former Cambridge tutor Simon Opie who had found a dead robin in his aviary - how had it got there. Sidney arrives just in time to save Opie's life. Who did it - read the story?

2. Female, Nude.

Sidney meets Amanda to view an exhibition of nude paintings at the Fitzwilliam. A beautiful girl in a fur coat enters the gallery, takes off her coat revealing she is naked, and walks around the room, singing in French. Soon Geordie joins them - she was a decoy, a semi valuable Sickert painting, "The Trapeze" has been stolen from a gallery two rooms along. Sidney interviews the custodian on duty in the Sickert room, an Omari Baptiste. Reluctantly, Sidney drags out of Omari that he had seen the girl before talking in French to the museum director, Graham Anderson. Anderson is not all that co-operative when Sidney and Geordie interview him. Helena Randall, the reporter thinks she has identified the girl as a French performance artist by the name of Celline Bellacourt. She lives in London with her older boyfriend Quentin Reveille. Sidney tracks Celline down, but she is lying to him - why? They interview Graham Henderson again. Eventually he acknowledges that he does know Celline - a girl who thinks the artist on the trapeze painting may be her mother. Celline's parents died when she was young, and she was adopted and brought up by a couple who ran the Hotel Du Plage, in Dieppe. Later Henderson confesses that he thinks he is Celline's father from his days as a student and a visit to Paris - but she does not know this. Now Celline and Reveille have disappeared. Sidney suggests that if they stole the painting, they may have taken it to Dieppe to get the trapeze artist identified as Celline's mother. Amanda loans Sidney £20 so that he accompany Geordie to Dieppe, but on condition that Sidney also gets Hildegard some of her favourite Shalimar perfume with any change. From his friendship with art historian Amanda, Sidney has picked up a bit about paintings, and how they are framed, etc. The painting is recovered and the thieves arrested.