Book review: Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil by James Runcie

The sixteenth book I read in 2016 was the third book in James Runcie's Grantchester Mysteries, Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil.  I've had a fraught relationship with this series so far, not liking the first book and really not liking the second, so I went into this one without much anticipation.

I don't know if it was low expectations or the fact that the tiresome love triangle had finally been resolved, but I didn't dislike this book as much as its predecessors.  It still has the problem of Sidney being a flat cypher in situations that ought to be inspiring strong emotional reactions and of the solutions of the mysteries being unconvincing afterthoughts ("Why did he do it? Well, because someone had to have done it, I guess...."), and Runcie really should have known better than to cast his main character in a film adaptation of a much better mystery novel, let alone criticize Sayers's plot.  But I finished this book (despite the schmaltziness of the final mystery, a Hallmark-Hall-of-Fame-caliber tale) not hating the protagonist as much as I did at the end of the previous book, which has to be accounted progress.

The four stories in this book take place between 25 May 1962 (the consecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral) and Christmas 1963 (the title of the last story).  The author asks me to believe that an illegitimate birth in this period of time occasioned not a whiff of scandal or disapproval from family, community, or church, which I'm not sure I can get on board with.  While Canon Chambers has no problem with homosexuality, he does at least don his 21st-Century-Morality superhero cape to chide others for having the incorrect attitudes; oughtn't he to be getting on his high horse to defend single motherhood as well?