Saturday Sleuthing: Classic Cars, Spitfires, Chimney Sweeps, Chefs and Jane Austen

Amy Myers writes crime novels, but they are crime novels with a difference. Her crime solving characters are an unusual mix and while some of these novels cannot be called historical fiction they do have links to the past.

THE JACK COLBY, CAR DETECTIVE, MYSTERIES

Jack Colby is the owner of a classic car restoration business and while tracking down classic cars finds himself involved in murder. I was drawn to these books by their covers: classic cars have a style of their own, especially those from the 1930s. Six books are currently available in this series.

Classic In The Barn (Jack Colby, Car Detective Mysteries #1)

When Jack Colby glimpses a 1938 Lagonda V12 lying uncared for in a Kentish country barn, he has to have a closer look - which brings him face to face with its angry owner, Polly Davis. Is it the car or Polly that captivates his heart? He decides to find out more about both, but his enquiries are abruptly cut short when Polly is murdered. Convinced that the Lagonda is somehow involved, he is determined to bring her killer to justice, even at the expense of his own safety . . .








Classic Cashes In (Jack Colby, Car Detective, Mysteries #6)

Jack Colby, car detective, takes a seemingly routine commission that precipitates him into a dangerous world of secrets and murder. A commission to buy a classic Packard saloon from the 1930s on behalf of a client should have been routine for Jack Colby, but this Packard is special ...and as Jack struggles to piece together the car's history and the mystery surrounding it, he is soon precipitated into a dangerous world where nothing is as it seems. What is the reason behind enigmatic banking magnate Philip Moxton's desperate desire for this particular car? Whatever it is, the car's current owner, actor Tom Herrick, seems to know it too - and is all too willing to sell. But when murder strikes, Jack is drawn into a hunt for the truth that involves not only his personal happiness but facing a relentless killer.



THE MARSH AND DAUGHTER MYSTERIES

Peter and Georgia Marsh are a father and daughter team. Peter is an ex-policeman confined to a wheelchair and Georgia is the wife of a publisher. Together they investigate crimes from the past and write books about their cases. There are eight books in this series, The Wickenham Murders,  is the first.

Once again I was drawn to these two novels by their covers: spitfires always signal a World War II story, another of my favourite eras, and the ink pot, with the image of the old mansion, and quill definitely hinted at a more historical connection.

Murder in Hell's Corner (Marsh and Daughter Mystery #3)

A reunion of Spitfire pilots from the Battle of Britain in a Kentish country hotel, and an overgrown rockery garden covered with bluebells combine to spark off one of Georgia and Peter Marsh's most dramatic cases. They discover that a murder had taken place in the 1970s; the victim was a popular war hero, Patrick Fairfax. His murder had never been solved. Convinced that there is a story here, the father and daughter Marsh team is driven to find out what happened. As well as the Spitfire pilots, the reunion included several members of the aviation club Fairfax ran after the war, and not all of them had cause to love him. Fairfax' memory is still green: his family keeps the flame burning, a film is in production, and his classic story of the Battle of Britain is to be reissued. What Peter and Georgia discover, however, sets in train of events that leads to a second murder, as the passions of today boil over to prevent the truth from emerging.

Murder in Abbott's Folly (Marsh and Daughter Mystery #8)

Curiosity about a murder that took place in an eighteenth-century folly draws father and daughter team Peter and Georgia Marsh to a Jane Austen-themed summer gala at Stourdens, a fast-decaying Georgian mansion in Kent. But instead of enjoying a literary day out, they are thrust into a tense situation, with a collection of Jane's letters - thought to contain thrilling secrets about her love life - at its heart. Should they be published? Peter and Georgia are inadvertently caught up in the battle - which soon turns deadly .







THE TOM WASP MYSTERIES

Tom Wasp is a chimney sweep from the East End of London. Together with Ned, his former climbing boy, they solve crimes in Victorian London. There are only two novels so far in this series, the first being Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner.

Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker (Tom Wasp Mystery #2)

When chimney sweep Tom Wasp visits his friend Eliza Hogg in Newgate Prison in January 1863, on the day before she is due to be hanged, he is surprised to be given the only thing of value she possesses and even more surprised when that turns out to be a pawn ticket. Tom's apprentice, twelve-year-old Ned, is disappointed that the pawned item is only a scruffy sailor doll. Some days later, however, they find its hidden secret...








THE AUGUSTE DIDIER MYSTERIES

This series, of nine books, is set in the late Victorian/early Edwardian era and features Auguste Didier, a French chef. This was Amy Myers' first series.

Murder in Pug's Parlour (Auguste Didier Mysteries #1)

Accused of poisoning a man with the mushrooms he prepared the night of the murder, chef Auguste Didier is forced to investigate the crime himself in order to clear his name.













I did say at the start of this post that Amy Myers' crime solving characters are an unusual mix. What do you think?

While I probably won't read any of the Jack Colby novels or the books featuring Auguste Didier, not being a great fan of books with a culinary setting, I'm seriously tempted by the other two series. Cold case crimes fascinate me by the fact that crimes can still be solved a very long time after they are committed. And the Tom Wasp Mysteries? This series did grab my attention. If a chef and a car restorer can solve crime, why not a Victorian chimney sweep?

Amy Myers' writing career spans over 25 years, from 1986 to the present. She also writes romances, suspense and historical novels under a number of pseudonyms: Laura Daniels, Alice Carr and Harriet Hudson. As with most authors with a large body of work, many of her early crime novels are out of print, but some have been released as ebooks.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Not a very exciting week for me reading-wise. One novel completed, two started and more added to my reading pile.

What I Read Last Week

A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world .........



This is the first novel I've read by Charles Todd. I enjoyed it and am now looking forward to reading the first book in the series.

Reading Today

The French Executioner by C.C. Humphreys  (The French Executioner Series #1)

It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it...From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.





Shores of Darkness by Diana Norman

For Martin Millet of the Dragoons it began on the turbulent summer day in 1706 when he returned from the French wars to find his Aunt Effie murdered and himself sole inheritor of her lodging house and her serving girl Bratchet, neither of which he wanted. For Daniel Defoe, political hack, failed merchant and debtor, it had begun a little earlier, on the equally inauspicious day when they put him in the pillory for seditious libel and he was accosted by an enormous orange-haired Highlander. The Scotsman is seeking a young kinswoman, Anne Bard, and offers Defoe money to help him find her. Then, surprisingly, a Minister of State does the same, for Anne Bard may be able to answer the question that is tearing the country apart. The ageing Queen Anne is childless, leaving the future king to be chosen between a Protestant Hanoverian and a Catholic Jacobite, neither of whom is popular. What, however, if there were a third choice: another true Stuart, but a Protestant? Defoe, the threat of Newgate hanging over him, can hardly refuse. And since Anne Bard's last known address was Aunt Effie's lodging house, Defoe employs two even more unlikely spies to help him: Millet and his troublesome legacy, the Bratchet. Followed by the mysterious Highlander, their search takes them to Flanders where the Duke of Marlborough is fighting the French, to the court of the Sun King Louis XIV himself, into piracy and finally, unwillingly, into the world of the darkest trade of all. Yet all the time, had they but known it, the answer lies at home, dangerously close to Queen Anne herself.


Once again I have set aside one book for another. I had started The French Executioner and was enjoying the tale, but then I collected Diana Norman's novel Shores of Darkness from the library, read the prologue and now I'm more than halfway through this book and unable to put it down.


What I Hope to Read Next

Blood Ties by C.C. Humphreys (The French Executioner #2)


Years have gone by since the events surrounding the death of Anne Boleyn. But her missing hand and all that it represents to the dark world of 16th-century Europe still draws the powerful to seek it out. Jean Rombaud - the French executioner of the first novel - has grown old, both in age and spirit. Wearied by the betrayal of a son and the scorn of a wife, he fights in the seemingly never-ending siege of Siena. Meanwhile, Gianni Rombaud has forsaken everything his ageing father stands for and now kills heathen for the Inquisition in Rome. Then he is summoned by Cardinal Carafa himself. His masters no longer merely want his dagger in the hearts of Jews, they want the hand of the dead queen...But only three people know where it is buried, and one of them is Gianni's father...


Gallipoli Street by Mary Anne O'Connor

An Anzac tale of three families whose destinies are entwined by war, tragedy and passion.
At 17, Veronica O’Shay is happier running wild on the family farm than behaving in the ladylike manner her mother requires, and she despairs both of her secret passion for her brother’s friend Jack Murphy and what promises to be a future of restraint and compliance. 
But this is 1913 and the genteel tranquillity of rural Beecroft is about to change forever as the O’Shay and Murphy families, along with their friends the Dwyers, are caught up in the theatre of war and their fates become intertwined.
From the horrors of Gallipoli to the bloody battles of the Somme, through love lost and found, the Great Depression and the desperate jungle war along the Kokoda Track, this sprawling family drama brings to life a time long past… a time of desperate love born in desperate times and acts of friendship against impossible odds.
A love letter to Australian landscape and character, Gallipoli Street celebrates both mateship and the enduring quality of real love. But more than that, this book shows us where we have come from as a nation, by revealing the adversity and passions that forged us.
A stunning novel that brings to life the love and courage that formed our Anzac tradition.

My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young

A letter, two lovers, a terrible lie. In war, truth is only the first casualty. 'Inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls' One Day' The Times While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home. Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband's return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises - but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead? Moving between Ypres, London and Paris, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You is a deeply affecting, moving and brilliant novel of love and war, and how they affect those left behind as well as those who fight.

Book Review: The Winter House by Nicci Gerrard

Marnie Still receives an unexpected telephone call from an old friend, Oliver Fenton, who she hasn’t heard from in years. A mutual friend, Ralph  Tinsley, is dying of cancer and has summoned Marnie to his home in Scotland. This must be a very special friendship because Marnie puts her London life on hold and heads north.

What ensues from the dash to Scotland is Marnie recounting the story of their meeting and subsequent friendship to Ralph, not knowing if he can hear her or make sense of what she's saying. The telling is made more poignant by the reader's access to Ralph's thoughts and memories, the ones he cannot voice because of his morphine-induced state.

From the first few chapters as Marnie prepares to leave for Scotland, it is evident there has been an estrangement between a  group of friends consisting of Marnie, Oliver, Ralph and Lucy. This happened one summer, over twenty years ago. It’s an entangled relationship the four share as they go from adolescence to adulthood.

I felt sorry for Ralph, but I didn't like him. He was selfish, unreliable and unpredictable, though there were glimpses of another Ralph under that volatile nature. At times Marnie resented his intrusion into her family life, but was always there for him in times of crises. Ralph, however, did redeem himself in my eyes once I'd finished the novel and reflected on the ending. What I thought was a final selfish demand of summoning Marnie to his bedside could be interpreted as Ralph's means of atonement, a way of re-uniting Marnie and Oliver.

Nicci Gerrard's descriptions of the remote cottage and the landscape were excellent. I loved the imagery of the wintry setting: the shortening of the days as Ralph’s life is getting shorter and the warmth of the cottage reflecting the feelings of the people cocooned within its walls.

Knowing early on that one of the main characters was going to die, I expected to be thoroughly depressed by the end of the book, but I wasn’t. I was prepared for a mass out pouring of grief and lots of sentimentality when Ralph finally dies, but this didn't eventuate. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that despite the gloomy subject matter, I was left feeling happy and uplifted.

The Winter House moves gently in and out of the past to the inevitable outcome. It is a story of unrequited love, jealousy and betrayal. It explores how friendships form, what draws us to one another and how the ties of family and friends are never truly broken.

I don’t know what made me choose this novel. Nicci Gerrard doesn't write in the genre I usually read, but I’m glad I added this one to my reading pile.

Saturday Sleuthing: Some Great Historical Mystery Finds

What do Richard Nottingham and Tom Harper have in common? They both solve crime in Leeds, England: in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. From Chris Nickson come two historical mystery series: The Richard Nottingham Mysteries and The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries.

The Broken Token (The Richard Nottingham Mysteries #1)

 Leeds, England, 1731.

When Richard Nottingham, Constable of Leeds, discovers his former housemaid murdered in a particularly sickening manner, his professional and personal lives move perilously close. Circumstances conspire against him, and more murders follow. Soon the city fathers cast doubt on his capability, and he is forced to seek help from an unsavory source. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls as family problems offer an unwelcome distraction; he can't even track down a thief who has been a thorn in his side for months. When answers start to emerge, Nottingham gets more than he bargains for.

The next in the series is Cold Cruel Winter, followed by The Constant Lovers (#3), Come the Fear (#4), At The Dying Year (#5) and Fair and Tender Ladies (#6)


The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries is a relatively new series by Chris Nickson consisting of two books so far. It was the second book in the series, Two Bronze Pennies, that caught my eye first.

Gods of Gold (The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries #1)

June 1890. Leeds is close to breaking point. The gas workers are on strike. Supplies are dangerously low. Factories and businesses are closing; the lamps are going unlit at night. Detective Inspector Tom Harper has more urgent matters on his mind. The beat constable claims eight-year-old Martha Parkinson has disappeared. Her father insists she's visiting an aunt in Halifax - but Harper doesn't believe him. When Col Parkinson is found dead the following morning, the case takes on an increasing desperation. But then Harper's search for Martha is interrupted by the murder of a replacement gas worker, stabbed to death outside the Town Hall while surrounded by a hostile mob. Pushed to find a quick solution, Harper discovers that there's more to this killing than meets the eye - and that there may be a connection to Martha's disappearance.


Two Bronze Pennies (The Detective Inspector Tom Harper Mysteries #2)

Leeds, England, Christmas Eve, 1890. DI Tom Harper is looking forward to a well-earned rest. But it's not to be. A young man has been found stabbed to death in the city s poverty-stricken Jewish district, his body carefully arranged in the shape of a cross, two bronze pennies covering his eyes. Could someone be pursuing a personal vendetta against the Jews?
Harper's investigations are hampered by the arrival of Capitaine Bertrand Muyrere of the French police, who has come to Leeds to look into the disappearance of the famous French inventor Louis Le Prince, vanished without trace after boarding a train to Paris.
With no one in the close-knit Jewish community talking to the police and with tensions rising, DI Harper realizes he'll have to resort to more unorthodox methods in order to unmask the killer.


These two series appeal to me because of their setting. Leeds is a city I remember from my childhood, though I don't know much of its history only that it was, like many towns in Yorkshire, famous for its woollen mills. So I'm hoping these novels have lots of historical detail, as well as being great mysteries.

Chris Nickson has a post on his blog entitled So Why Do I Write Historical Crime?  It's always interesting to know why an author has chosen to write in a particular genre. I found it very informative.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This weekly meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Last week was not a very productive week for me reading-wise, though I did manage to complete two books. Internet book browsing took up a lot of my time and yesterday I enjoyed a quiet Sunday updating my Book Series page, converting it from being just a list of books into something a bit more interesting. My bedtime reading was replaced by watching episodes of Scott & Bailey on DVD.

What I Read Last Week

Plague by C.C. Humphreys

This was a great read. Chris Humphreys' books are very easy reading.

London, May 1665. On a dark road outside London, a simple robbery goes horribly wrong - when the gentlemanly highwayman, William Coke, discovers that his intended victims have been brutally slaughtered. Suspected of the murders, Coke is forced into an uneasy alliance with the man who pursues him - the relentless thief-taker, Pitman. Together they seek the killer - and uncover a conspiracy that reaches from the glittering, debauched court of King Charles to the worst slum in the city, St Giles in the Fields. But there's another murderer moving through the slums, the taverns and palaces, slipping under the doorways of the rich. A mass murderer ..... Plague .......



 The Widow's Confession by Sophia Tobin

I was disappointed by this second novel from Sophia Tobin mainly because of my own expectations influenced by the cover. The interest grabbing mystery promised by the book blurb wasn't there for me and the story seemed to drag on. The Widow's Confession was very readable, but I liked The Silversmith's Wife better.

 Broadstairs, Kent, 1851. Once a sleepy fishing village, now a select sea-bathing resort, this is a place where people come to take the air, and where they come to hide...

Delphine and her cousin Julia have come to the seaside with a secret, one they have been running from for years. The clean air and quiet outlook of Broadstairs appeal to them and they think this is a place they can hide from the darkness for just a little longer. Even so, they find themselves increasingly involved in the intrigues and relationships of other visitors to the town.

But this is a place with its own secrets, and a dark past. And when the body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach, a mysterious message scrawled on the sand beside her, the past returns to haunt Broadstairs and its inhabitants. As the incomers are drawn into the mystery and each others' lives, they realise they cannot escape what happened here years before.....

Reading Today

I picked this one up again after abandoning it for The Plague and The Widow's Confession.

A Fine Summer's Day by Charles Todd

On a fine summer's day in June, 1914, Ian Rutledge pays little notice to the assassination of an archduke in Sarajevo. An Inspector at Scotland Yard, he is planning to propose to the woman whom he deeply loves, despite intimations from friends and family that she may not be the wisest choice. To the north on this warm and gentle day, another man in love-a Scottish Highlander-shows his own dear girl the house he will build for her in September. While back in England, a son awaits the undertaker in the wake of his widowed mother's death. This death will set off a series of murders across England, seemingly unconnected, that Rutledge will race to solve in the weeks before the fateful declaration in August that will forever transform his world .........



What I Hope to Read Next

My reading pile has a number of series firsts in it so perhaps I'll choose one of those for my next read.

The French Executioner by C.C. Humphreys (#1 The French Executioner Series)

It is 1536, and the expert swordsman, Jean Rombaud, has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it...From a battle between slave galleys to a black mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.





A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins (#1 Lucy Campion Mysteries)

For Lucy Campion, a seventeenth-century English chambermaid serving in the household of the local magistrate, life is an endless repetition of polishing pewter, emptying chamber pots, and dealing with other household chores until a fellow servant is ruthlessly killed, and someone close to Lucy falls under suspicion. Lucy can't believe it, but in a time where the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent, lawyers aren't permitted to defend their clients, and--if the plague doesn't kill the suspect first--public executions draw a large crowd of spectators, Lucy knows she may never find out what really happened. Unless, that is, she can uncover the truth herself. Determined to do just that, Lucy finds herself venturing out of her expected station and into raucous printers' shops, secretive gypsy camps, the foul streets of London, and even the bowels of Newgate prison on a trail that might lead her straight into the arms of the killer. In her debut novel "Murder at Rosamund's Gate," Susanna Calkins seamlessly blends historical detail, romance, and mystery in a moving and highly entertaining tale.

The Last Days of Newgate by Andrew Pepper (#1 Pyke Mysteries)

St Giles, London, 1829: three people have been brutally murdered and the city simmers with anger and political unrest. Pyke, sometime Bow Street Runner, sometime crook, finds himself accidentally embroiled in the murder investigation but quickly realises that he has stumbled into something more sinister and far-reaching. In his pursuit of the murderer, Pyke ruffles the feathers of some powerful people and, falsely accused of murder himself, he soon faces a death sentence and the gallows of the Old Bailey. Imprisoned, and with only his uncle and the headstrong, aristocratic daughter of his greatest enemy who believe in him, Pyke must engineer his escape, find the real killer and untangle the web of politics that has been spun around him. From the gutters of Seven Dials to the cells of Newgate prison, from the turmoil of 1800s Belfast to the highest levels of murky, pre-Victorian politics, THE LAST DAYS OF NEWGATE is a gripping, darkly atmospheric story with a fantastic, pragmatic - and reluctantly heroic - hero.

The Grantchester Mysteries by James Runcie

The first episode of  'Grantchester' was aired on Australian television last night, which sent me off  to discover more about the television series I’ll be devoting the next five Saturday nights to.

'Grantchester' is based on The Grantchester Mysteries, a relatively new series of novels by James Runcie, involving a village vicar turned sleuth. Canon Sidney Chambers, ex-Scots Guards Officer, is the vicar of Grantchester, an English village near Cambridge, England. He is assisted in his investigations by Detective Inspector Geordie Keating.

Six novels are planned for this series, spanning the years 1953 to 1978. To-date there are three books available and one due for release in May, 2015. I love the retro look of the book covers, a style which seems to be very popular at present for books in the crime fiction genre.

I'm not sure how closely the television series follows the novels, so the following synopses may contain spoilers for those who have yet to watch the series.

Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death

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.

Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night

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.

Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil

Our favorite clerical detective is back with four longer mysteries in which Canon Sidney Chambers attempts to stop a serial killer with a grievance against the clergy; investigates the disappearance of a famous painting after a distracting display of nudity by a French girl in an art gallery; uncovers the fact that an "accidental" drowning on a film shoot may have been something more sinister; and discovers the reasons behind the theft of a baby from a hospital just before Christmas 1963. In the meantime, Sidney wrestles with the problem of evil, attempts to fulfill the demands of his faithful Labrador, Dickens, and contemplates, as always, the nature of love.



Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins 

The loveable full-time priest and part-time detective, Canon Sidney Chambers, continues his sleuthing adventures in 1960's Cambridge. On a snowy Thursday morning in Lent 1964, a stranger seeks sanctuary in Grantchester's church, convinced he has murdered his wife. Sidney and his wife Hildegard go for a shooting weekend in the country and find their hostess has a sinister burn on her neck. Sidney's friend Amanda receives poison pen letters when at last she appears to be approaching matrimony. A firm of removal men 'accidentally' drop a Steinway piano on a musician's head outside a Cambridge college. During a cricket match, a group of schoolboys blow up their school Science Block. On a family holiday in Florence, Sidney is accused of the theft of a priceless painting. Meanwhile, on the home front, Sidney's new curate Malcolm seems set to become rather irritatingly popular with the parish; his baby girl Anna learns to walk and talk; Hildegard longs to get an au pair and Sidney is offered a promotion. Entertaining, suspenseful, thoughtful, moving and deeply humane, these six new stories are bound to delight the clerical detective's many fans.