The Shadow of Death - James Runcie

 

These are the books that Grantchester, the ITV series, is based on. I've never seen Grantchester but for some reason I thought it was a gritty, inner city, contemporary crime drama with dark streets and neon lights flickering in the rain. I was very, very wrong. Unless they have done some serious plot mangling for the telly!

The detective is Sidney Chambers, a vicar. His good friend is the local police inspector. Occasionally his friend asks him to help out by looking into the moral side of a crime and occasionally he just randomly stumbles across a murder. As these curious villagey types are so frequently wont to do.

Anyway, it's a book of four short stories. I bloody hate short stories. Just as you really get into the characters you have to start to get into a whole new set of characters. It's so annoying. 

However...

My notes from the time say, "Cases a bit wishy-washy, cute dog though". But my memory, in retrospect, is much more complementary. I often find it popping into my head for no good reason and I find myself drawn back to the character. Even though it's four stories many of the characters recur through out and the previous cases are often referred to as he learns to be a detective-priest.

I don't know if the rest are short stories or not but I would definitely read more of them if not.