Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil

April 28, 2014
Character is the strong suit of the four cases, all set in the early 1960s, that fill Runcie’s third collection featuring Canon Sidney Chambers (after 2013’s Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night). In the title story, the reader learns that the Anglican minister has recently gotten married to a German woman, in the process becoming “a living embodiment of post-war reconciliation.” Meanwhile, someone is targeting Sidney’s colleagues in Grantchester, leaving knife wounds meant to simulate the mark of the beast. A daring art theft is the subject of “Female, Nude,” but the high point is “Death by Water,” in which Sidney is hired to play Reverend Venables in a film adaptation of Dorothy Sayers’s The Nine Tailors. Despite his awkwardness on the set, Sidney manages to solve an apparently accidental drowning. Runcie may be no G.K. Chesterton when it comes to plotting, but cozy fans will be pleased. Agent: David Godwin, David Godwin Associates (U.K.).