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Sidney Chambers And The Shadow Of Death (2012)

by James Runcie(Favorite Author)

3.42 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1608198561 (ISBN13: 9781608198566)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

series

The Grantchester Mysteries

review 1: I read this as the November read for the Kindle English Mystery book club. I use the word read lightly. This book is organized into a series of loosely connected short stories with recurring characters. I read the first one and then skipped around and read another. Finally, I skimmed most of it. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t get into the character or the book. To be fair I don’t really read many historical fictions and very few with religious undertones, so it might work for other readers.
review 2: I'd give this about a 3.5. It reminds me of Sherlock Holmes set in the 1950s and I think that's the intent. The book is actually a series of six short case stories, each independent but interconnected. There were a few continuity errors I noticed, a... morend some typos which were distracting from time to time but generally I enjoyed each mystery. I found the characters hard to get a handle on and would have liked to see a bit more character development. There's a love interest of the main character Sidney that I found myself wondering time and again what, exactly, he saw in her. Additionally, I feel like after having read the entire book, almost exclusively in the main character's perspective (with one small, and somewhat confusing exception in the next to last short), I still have very little knowledge of the main character and who he is, what his background is, what makes him tick. By the same token, I feel like the author doesn't know, either. He picked a few "eccentricities"--a vicar who loves jazz and doesn't care for sherry. And he kept hitting THOSE points again, and again and again to the point I was like "WE GET IT ALREADY, HE LOVES JAZZ. Can we learn a little more about him, please?" I'd like to learn more about Sidney. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we will. Still, I'll give the second book a chance, enjoyable as I did find this book, for what it was. less

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