The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 29 May 2015
by Colin Dexter
Woodstock, England, that is, site of Blenheim Palace and just outside of Oxford, where Thames Valley police Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis do their work. (So, it's best to leave behind images of tripping hippies in upstate New York.) And so, in the car park behind the Black Prince pub, the body of a young woman is found murdered with the proverbial blunt instrument. First on the scene are Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis, with whom Morse is working for the first time. What follows is the familiar formula of a police procedural, with many likely suspects, many red herrings and dead ends. Eventually, just about everyone has a hand in the death of this young woman in an unlikely ornate story of anger, jealousy and sex. There are Oxford dons involved, as well as the creepy porn addict working down at the household furnishings store. There is a bunch of young women in working-class careers, and the various minor characters driving buses and running pubs. Of course, many readers, such as your present reviewer, will come to this 1975 novel having seen the popular Inspector Morse television series, which began in 1987 (and has run through a sequel series centered on Lewis, and a prequel series, Endeavour). These readers will look for similarities and differences with the characters they've come to care about. Indeed, Morse is familiar here, lonely, a little enigmatic, drinking a lot, a little clumsy, driving a Lancia instead of the Jaguar, and a little more concerned about his romantic life. Indeed, the book has an overarching theme of sex and love, including a romantic interest for Morse, and an intricate network of connections between its characters. It is helped along by a couple of cringe-worthy moments that reflect an outdated sexual attitude. The story is moved forward by a few blunt moments in which characters speak of others only as pronouns, just to keep us mystified. Its intricacies can become a bit confusing. Ultimately, it is not entirely clear if the clues we're provided give us any satisfaction in figuring out where the story is going. While the ultimate conclusion makes sense, only late details seem to make it so. This is, of course, the first in a series. No doubt, later books develop Morse and Lewis more into the Thames Valley police officers we've come to know via their portrayers on TV, John Law and Kevin Whately.
(While this was the first of the Inspector Morse novels, it was adapted only as the seventh episode of the subsequent ITV television series.)