Book #13 Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil

Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil by James Runcie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another delightful journey through the pastoral world of Canon Sidney Chambers and his good friend DI Geordie Keating in the early 1960s. James Runcie's sense of time and place is very accurate, which makes these four longer stories so enjoyable.

Sidney is settling into married life with his German bride Hildegard but things rarely stay quiet for long for our clerical detective in Grantchester. He 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 reason behind the theft of a baby from a hospital in the run up to Christmas, 1963.

Whilst reading these four stories I cannot help but visualise James Norton and Robson Greene in the two major rôles in "The Grantchester Mysteries" aired on ITV. The next series will commence soon. I wonder how close the scripts will follow these stories...

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Book #53 Splinter The Silence

Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another stunning read from Val McDermid. She really is unrivalled when it comes to crime fiction. The two unforgettable characters of Tony Hill and Carol Jordan are reunited in this brilliant page turner. The relief of reconciliation instilled with the whiff of police corruption and an ending that demands another instalment in this series. The psychological profiler Tony Hill, immortalised on TV by Robson Greene, comes across a series of suicides among women tormented by vicious online predators. A level of immediacy that makes him wonder if there is more to these tragedies than meets the eye. His erstwhile colleague and former DCI Carol Jordan has her own demons to confront and needs redemption from the scourge of drink. The mood between these two former close colleagues is electrifying, is their close bond to be reignited, will former colleagues rally round, will Carol regain her self esteem? Will Tony and Carol set aside their fractured relationship, begin to build bridges and begin the hunt for the most dangerous and terrifying kind of killer?

Splinter The Silence is an adrenalin rush that I could not wait to finish but did not want to end. Grab a copy and be prepared to stay up late. Brilliant!

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