Wednesday, 10 February 2016

James Runcie - Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night


Rating: 5/5

Review:
Still very good



This second volume of Sidney Chambers stories continues in much the same vein as the first – and thank goodness for that!  I like them very much, and I am pleased to see the quality being maintained.

The book opens in 1955 as Sidney is required to investigate an Night Climbing death in Cambridge, along with his friend the excellent Inspector Keating…and you probably don't want to know much more than that before reading it.  The stories all have the combination of detective work and moral debate which lifted the first volume well above the huge crowd of current crime fiction.  Runcie continues to write very well in his unfussy style, and I think he captures the period very well – perhaps better than in the first book, which suffered a little from 1950s characters using 21st-Century language.  We also get Sidney's problems of the heart which I think are very well done and very convincing.

What it comes down to is this: if you liked the first book, you'll like this because it's just as good.  Recommended.

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