This remarkable set of four longer stories is about the adventures of the Vicar of Grantchester, Canon Sidney Chambers who decided to become a priest after serving as an officer in the Second World War with some distinction and being awarded a Military Cross for his bravery under fire. Sidney is a charming forty-two-year-old newly married man with a reassuringly gentle manner. He has settled into married life with his German bride Hildegard but things don't stay quiet for very long.

It is now early 1963 and Sidney has been a clergyman for some ten years and 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 reasons behind the theft of a baby from a hospital in the run up to Christmas 1963.

In the meantime, Sidney wrestles with the problems of evil, attempts to fulfil the demands of Dickens, his faithful Labrador and contemplates, as always, the nature of love. There are much philosophical ramblings also to digest.

Essentially this book is another in the series of the adventures in crime sleuthing by an Anglican minister similar in whimsical style to that of the adventures of Father Brown. I thought also that it was reminiscent of the Margery Allingham stories as the tales are all very English and of the 'cosy' variety. Sidney still meets his detective friend Inspector Keating for a pint or two in a local pub every Tuesday and they discuss the specifics of their various cases and life in general.