by James Runcie
‘We have to be more than ourselves.’
‘Will you think about it, Sidney? Promise me that.’
‘I’ll try. And will you pray for me, Felix?’
‘I do so every day.’
Sidney walked back to Canonry House wondering what on earth he was going to do, how he would talk to Anna and in what way their lives might change. There was a heaviness in the air, and yet, at the same time, the atmosphere was brittle and inconsistent. Soon it would rain.
He remembered Anna’s birth. How quickly she had grown up and how much he had missed. Would he neglect her even more if he became a bishop, or would he be able to devote more time to being both a priest and a father? He certainly couldn’t do any more detective work. He would have to give that up anyway. It was ridiculous to keep on doing it and, in any case, Geordie would be retiring in a few more years and he couldn’t work with anyone other than him. No one else would have the patience.
He would probably miss the drama, the search for justice and the need for solutions. The world of faith and doubt was more continually ambiguous; the quest for meaning more intellectually complex. He would also have to devote himself more wholeheartedly to a life of prayer and responsibility, both in the Church and in the home, and then he could use all that he had learned to comfort the afflicted, support the weak and further the common good.
The dean’s words about Archbishop Tait had moved him very much. He should try now, once more, to lead as exemplary a life as he could, eschewing the heroic vanity of his criminal investigations. Other people could do that. That’s what policemen were for. Let them do their jobs and Sidney could do his.
Well, at least it was one thing decided, he thought to himself, glad that he had avoided the forthcoming shower. No more investigation. He wouldn’t have to worry about that kind of distraction. He would tell his daughter that he had given up on all that running round the country trying to solve impossible crimes. Now he would have more time for her. And then, after he had told her this, they would discuss her schooling and her future. Only after he had done that would he raise the possibility of becoming a bishop.
He wondered if Anna might even like the idea, perhaps even be proud of him, but then he thought he could hear Hildegard’s voice in his head counselling caution and humility.
‘Be careful, mein Lieber.’
He was getting ahead of himself. He needed to rethink everything from Anna’s point of view and present it as such.
He turned the corner into Infirmary Lane with a renewed sense of purpose. This was something to get on with, he decided. He would emerge from the shadow of his wife’s death with a new sense of direction and he would lead a different life.
‘No more criminal investigation,’ he repeated to himself. ‘That’s enough.’
He saw a figure outside his front door, a man who had forgotten his umbrella, waiting with his mackintosh half over his head as the rain started. It was Geordie. ‘Something’s come up,’ he said.
‘What is it?’
‘I need your help.’
‘Haven’t you got anyone else?’
‘No, Sidney. You’re the only man who can sort this out.’
‘What is it?’
‘Have you got time for a quick pint?’
A Note on the Author
James Runcie is an award-winning film-maker and the author of nine previous novels. Sidney Chambers and The Persistence of Love is the sixth book in ‘The Grantchester Mysteries’ series, which began in 2012 with Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death. In October 2014, ITV launched Grantchester, a prime-time series starring James Norton as Sidney Chambers. The second season aired in spring 2016, and the third in spring 2017. James Runcie is the Commissioning Editor for Arts at BBC Radio 4. He lives in London and Edinburgh.
www.jamesruncie.com
www.grantchestermysteries.com
@james_runcie
Also available by James Runcie in The Grantchester Mystery series
Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death
Sidney Chambers, the Vicar of Grantchester, is a thirty-two year old bachelor. Sidney is an unconventional clergyman and 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 jewellery theft at a New Year’s Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a well-known jazz promoter and a shocking art forgery, the disclosure of which puts a close friend in danger. Sidney discovers that being a detective, like being a clergyman, means that you are never off duty...
‘While the diminutive priest detective created by G. K. Chesterton led the way, Sidney Chambers is set fair to be a worthy successor ... this is quite an achievement’
Daily Mail
‘At last, an Anglican Father Brown ... Each tale is beautifully crafted and surprising. I hope for many more volumes’
A. N. Wilson, Spectator
‘A charmingly effective tale of detection ... evoking oodles of churchy village atmosphere, circa 1953, provides a satisfyingly old-fashioned read!’
The Times
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Sidney Chambers and The Perils of the Night
1955. Canon Sidney Chambers, loveable priest and part-time detective, is back. Accompanied by his faithful Labrador, Dickens, and the increasingly exasperated Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney is called to investigate the unexpected fall of a Cambridge don from the roof of King’s College Chapel, a case of arson at a glamour photographer’s studio and the poisoning of Zafar Ali, Grantchester’s finest spin bowler.
Alongside his sleuthing, Sidney has other problems. Can he decide between his dear friend, the glamorous socialite Amanda Kendall and Hildegard Staunton, the beguiling German widow? To make up his mind Sidney takes a trip abroad, only to find himself trapped in a web of international espionage just as the Berlin Wall is going up.
‘While the diminutive priest detective created by G. K. Chesterton led the way, Sidney Chambers is set fair to be a worthy successor ... this is quite an achievement’
Daily Mail
‘The coziest of cozy murder mysteries’
New York Times Book Review
‘Totally English, beautifully written, perfectly in period and wryly funny. More, please!’
Country Life
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Sidney Chambers and The Problem of Evil
It is the 1960s and Canon Sidney Chambers is enjoying his first year of married life with his German bride Hildegard. But life in Grantchester rarely stays quiet for long.
Our favourite clerical detective soon attempts to stop a serial killer who has 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 not have been so accidental after all; and discovers the reasons behind the theft of a baby from a hospital in the run-up to Christmas, 1963.
In the meantime, Sidney wrestles with the problem of evil, attempts to fulfil the demands of Dickens, his faithful Labrador, and contemplates, as always, the nature of love.
The third in ‘The Grantchester Mysteries’ series – six detective novels spanning thirty years of British history – these four longer stories are guaranteed to delight the many fans of Canon Sidney Chambers.
‘We should welcome him to the ranks of classic detectives’
Daily Mail
‘There is no denying the winning charm of these artfully fashioned mysteries’
Independent
‘Runcie is emerging as Grantchester’s answer to Alexander McCall Smith … The book brings a dollop of Midsomer Murders to the Church of England, together with a literate charm of its own: civilized entertainment, with dog-collars’
Spectator
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Sidney Chambers and The Forgiveness of Sins
The loveable full-time priest and part-ti
me 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 and 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.
‘We should welcome him to the ranks of classic detectives’
Daily Mail
‘A perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon, a hammock and a glass of Pimm’s’
Guardian
‘There is no denying the winning charm of these artfully fashioned mysteries’
Independent
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Sidney Chambers and The Dangers of Temptation
Archdeacon Sidney Chambers is beginning to think that the life of a full-time priest (and part-time detective) is not easy. So when a bewitching divorcee in a mink coat interrupts Sidney’s family lunch asking him to help locate her missing son, he hopes it will be an open and shut case.
The last thing he expects is to be dragged into the mysterious workings of a sinister cult, or to find himself tangled up in another murder investigation. But, as always, the village of Grantchester is not as peaceful as it seems…
From the theft of an heirloom to an ominous case of blackmail, Sidney is once again rushed off his feet in this eagerly anticipated fifth instalment in The Grantchester Mysteries series.
‘Those who would like an engaging summer read should pack James Runcie’s latest tale of clerical detection, Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation’ Alexander McCall Smith, Observer
‘The running theme is love and loyalty between friends and within the family ... Runcie has the gift of the born story-teller with an easy style that makes it hard to put the book aside’ Daily Mail
‘Perfect reading for a sunny English garden’ Kate Saunders, The Times
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Also available by James Runcie
East Fortune
Jack Henderson, estranged from his ex-wife and grown-up daughters, is involved in a horrific accident. His younger brother Douglas begins an affair with a woman he barely knows, risking everything. And Angus, the eldest of the Henderson boys, finds himself suddenly in freefall having unexpectedly been laid off from his job.
As the three brothers head to their childhood home in East Fortune for their annual summer gathering, they brace themselves against sibling rivalries and parental expectations. East Fortune is a moving story about life and love, chance and hope, and how families survive.
‘This gripping novel has only one major flaw – it was far too short – I wanted at least another 200 pages of these people and their lives’ Victoria Hislop
‘East Fortune is wonderfully alive. James Runcie has written a rich, subtle, and often funny book’ Daily Mail
‘He is the simple chronicler of English post-war life, using irony and understatement to lay bare the patterns of ordinary life’ Sunday Telegraph
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Canvey Island
It is 1953 in Canvey Island. Len and Violet are at a dance. Violet’s husband George sits and watches them sway and glide across the dance floor, his mind far away, trapped by a war that ended nearly ten years ago. Meanwhile, at home, a storm rages and Len’s wife Lily and his young son Martin fight for their lives in the raging black torrent. The night ends in a tragedy that will reverberate through their lives. This poignant novel follows the family’s fortunes from the austerity of the post-war years to Churchill’s funeral, from Greenham Common to the onset of Thatcherism and beyond, eloquently capturing the very essence of a transforming England in the decades after the war. It is a triumph of understated emotion, a novel about growing up and growing old, about love, hope and reconciliation.
‘Runcie has captured the truth about love ... Beautifully done’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A tender, intimate account of post-war England which left me both wistful and elated ... So engaging, so well-shaped and so unsparingly, generously truthful’ Jim Crace
‘Runcie’s third novel is a funny, epic, moving story of Thameside folk ... Canvey Island is a beautifully observed, tragi-comic work’ What’s On
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First published in Great Britain 2017
This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
© James Runcie, 2017
James Runcie has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The moral right of the author has been asserted
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eISBN 978 1 4088 7903 0
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