More bite-size detective stories to tickle the palate

The Forgiveness of Sins

Hardback published by Bloomsbury available for £14.99

Writer of The Forgiveness of Sins – James Runcie who studied at Oxford, lives in London and Edinburgh.  He is the the author of a total of seven books.  Keen on detective work,  Canon Sidney Chambers stars in The Grantchester Mysteries and helps solve “puzzles” in 1960’s Cambridge. There are six stories to tangle with in this new volume, and they are carefully written with some interesting characters therein.  Last October ITV launched Grantchester – a prime time six-part series starring James Norton as Sidney Chambers, so the man has got legs and has been fleshed out in the media of television.

These stories are very much embedded in the notion so popular with the reading and viewing public that things are never quite right in situations involving privileged and educated people when they should be.  Inevitably the opposite is true – cf  Midsomer Murders and Poirot for example.  There are no thugs, deprived or apparently depraved individuals (at least those depraved by poverty or underprivileged lifestyles) to be found in the circles of educated privileged fragrant ministers of the church or those who are talented in music, as well as ladies and gentlemen seeking new relationships, or quite comfortable  people “just getting by”. Of course the baser elements of the human condition are required for all murder or crime mysteries to take shape and to fill the reader with curiosity and desire to discover the truth.

What sets The Forgiveness of Sins apart from other books of the same genre for me is that there are plenty of twists and turns in the stories so that it is a truly difficult piece of detective work for the reader to unravel the plot to the potential denouement and revelation for each story. Therefore the stories are proper page turners.  They are also, for city dwellers, an enticing escape route into life in the leafy balmy provinces at the same time as reminding us that the trickery of the human condition also pervades life in the charming countryside so we need to have our wits about us whilst we enjoy these mesmerising tales.   Enjoy.

Review by Penny Nair Price.