Inspector Morse

I’ve always loved watching Inspector Morse TV episodes back home on BBC America.  He is one of my favorite detectives, and, of course, the fact that he’s in Oxford endears him even more. It’s neat to see all sorts of Oxford locations while I’m watching the show.  See http://www.itv.com/Drama/copsandcrime/morseweekend/Abouttheshow/default.html

Recently I decided it would be good to read some of Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse novels, the basis for the TV series. I’m ashamed to say, I’d never read one.  So, after I finished the somewhat cheesy Southern cozy (a chic murder mystery set in the South – in this case, a fictitious Georgia town called St. Elizabeth’s…) I’d brought with me to Oxford, I went on a search for a secondhand copy of a Morse novel.

The first one I came across was The Wench Is Dead.  I found it at one of my favorite Summertown charity shops for a mere pound.  The story involves a really cold case – one that happened back in the late 1800s.  In this story, Inspector Morse is laid up in the hospital (he winds up there because he doesn’t take care of himself – drinks too much, eats the wrong food, smokes…).  One of the guys on Morse’s ward is an old Colonel who dies; his widow leaves Morse a little booklet the Colonel wrote about the nineteenth century murder of a young woman on the Oxford Canal.  Morse becomes intrigued; he believes the wrong parties were convicted for the crime.  So he gets people to help him dig up evidence from the distant past.  One of the diggers is a young woman whose father is also a patient on the ward.  She happens to work at the Bodleian – how convenient!  Anyway, after Morse gets out of the hospital, he and his sidekick Lewis visit the old crime scenes, and Morse eventually ends up solving the crime!  I forgot to mention, along the way he also flirts with the Bodleian librarian and one of the nurses, and apparently has an affair with one of the sisters (a head nurse).

This was a great story – really captured my attention – so, I decided I should read another.  At Glouster Green market, I picked up a used copy of Dexter’s The Remorseful Day.  It turns out that my choice of books was in perfect sequence.  In this novel, Morse learns that a year-old murder case is being reopened.  It was the murder of the very nurse he flirted with during his stay in the hospital!  Turns out they did a bit more than flirt.  Anyhoo, even though Morse is sometimes a suspect, he ends up solving the crime.  Oh yeah, he also dies.  Sadly, this is the last book in the Inspector Morse series.  All that hard living finally catches up with him.

I would highly recommend these two books – in this sequence – if you want to get into Inspector Morse.  I learned a lot about him.  In the books, he doesn’t actually live or work in Oxford proper.  He’s based in Kidlington, which is just up the Banbury Road – not far from where I live.  Morse also spends a lot of time in the Summertown area – visiting some of the places that I go to on a regular basis.

Before leaving Inspector Morse, there’s one more thing. I actually had the privilege of meeting Morse’s author, Colin Dexter, back in 1989, the first time I came to Oxford.  He came to a cocktail party that was being hosted for my librarians’ group (we were studying Oxford libraries – mainly the Bodleian).  He was a charming man – he told funny stories and kept all of us amused.  This picture of him is not the most flattering; trust me, he was only being attentive and polite!

Now I’ve got a third Morse novel to read.  This one’s The Last Bus to Woodstock, which is the FIRST book of the Morse series.  I’ll start it right after I finish another Southern cozy.  This one’s about a woman in a small South Carolina town who loves (to the extreme!) cats and makes cat quilts (quilts that cats actually lie on) for a living.  Someone in the sleepy S.C. town is stealing cats.  The heroine, our quasi-detective, finds the cat thief lying on his living floor with a knife through his heart.  Why was this guy stealing all these cats???  I haven’t gotten to that part yet.  Oh, and who dunnit???