Inspector Morse Books

"[Morse is] the most prickly, conceited, and genuinely brilliant detective since Hercule Poirot." --The New York Times Book Review "YOU DON'T REALLY KNOW MORSE UNTIL YOU'VE READ HIM. . . . Viewers who have enjoyed British actor John Thaw as Morse in the PBS Mystery! Anthology series should welcome the deeper character development in Dexter's novels." --Chicago Sun-Times Beautiful Sylvia Kaye and another young woman had been seen hitching a ride not long before Sylvia's bludgeoned body is found outside a pub in Woodstock, near Oxford. Morse is sure the other hitchhiker can tell him much of what he needs to know. But his confidence is shaken by the cool inscrutability of the girl he's certain was Sylvia's companion on that ill-fated September evening. Shrewd as Morse is, he's also distracted by the complex scenarios that the murder set in motion among Sylvia's girlfriends and their Oxford playmates. To grasp the painful truth, and act upon it, requires from Morse the last atom of his professional discipline. "Few novelists write books as intelligent and deliciously frightening as those by Colin Dexter. . . . What Mr. Dexter does so well, so brilliantly, is weave a thick, cerebral story chock-full of literary references and clever red herrings." --The Washington Times "A MASTERFUL CRIME WRITER WHOM FEW OTHERS MATCH." --Publishers Weekly

"Morse is a thoroughly convincing detective, and a very humane one, too." --The New York Times Book Review Valerie Taylor has been missing since she was a sexy seventeen, more than two years ago. Inspector Morse is sure she's dead. But if she is, who forged the letter to her parents saying "I am alright so don't worry"? Never has a woman provided Morse with such a challenge, for each time the pieces of the jigsaw start falling into place, someone scatters them again. So Valerie remains as tantalizingly elusive as ever. Morse prefers a body--a body dead from unnatural causes. And very soon he gets one. . . . "You don't really know Morse until you've read him. . . . Viewers who have enjoyed British actor John Thaw as Morse in the PBS Mystery! anthology series should welcome the deeper character development in Dexter's novels." --Chicago Sun-Times "Fascinating . . . Very satisfying." --Book Sellers

"[Morse is] the most prickly, conceited, and genuinely brilliant detective since Hercule Poirot." --The New York Times Book Review Nicholas Quinn is deaf, so he considers himself lucky to be appointed to the Foreign Examinations Board at Oxford, which designs tests for students of English around the world. But when someone slips cyanide into Nicholas's  sherry, Inspector Morse has a multiple-choice murder. Any one of a tight little group of academics could have killed Quinn. Before Morse is done, all their dirty little secrets will be exposed. And a murderer will be cramming for his finals. . . . "[Dexter] is a magician with character, story construction, and the English language. . . . Colin Dexter and Morse are treasures of the genre." --Mystery News "It is a delight to watch this brilliant, quirky man [Morse] deduce." --Minneapolis Star & Tribune

"[MORSE IS] THE MOST PRICKLY, CONCEITED, AND GENUINELY BRILLIANT DETECTIVE SINCE HERCULE POIROT." --The New York Times Book Review This time Inspector Morse brings the imposition on himself. He could have been vacationing in Greece instead of investigating a murder that the police have long since written off. But he finds the crime--the brutal killing of a suburban churchwarden--fascinating. In fact, he uncovers not one murder but two, for the fatal fall of St. Frideswides vicar from the church tower Morse reckons to be murder as well. And as he digs into the lives and unsanctified lusts of the late vicar's erring flock, the list of the dead grows longer. Not even the oddly appealing woman he finds scrubbing the church floor can compensate Morse for the trouble he's let himself in for. So he has another pint, follows his hunches, and sets out to untangle the deadly business of homicide. . . . "A BRILLIANTLY PLOTTED DETECTIVE STORY." --Evening Standard (London) "WILY. . . ELEGANT." --Observer (London)

"[MORSE IS] THE MOST PRICKLY, CONCEITED, AND GENUINELY BRILLIANT DETECTIVE SINCE HERCULE POIROT." --The New York Times Book Review He meets her at a suburban party. They share a flirtation over their red wine . . . and he doesn't see her again. It's the old familiar story for Morse. Then one day he just happens to be in Jericho, where Anne Scott lives. Nobody's home--and Morse should know since her door is unlocked and he takes a quick look inside. Only later does Morse learn that the lady was at home, just not alive. The jury's verdict at the inquest is death by suicide. But that doesn't sit right with Morse, and he embarks on his own investigation into the tangled private life of a lovely woman, all the while feeling his own remorse of what might have been. . . . "You don't really know Morse until you've read him. . . . Viewers who have enjoyed British actor John Thaw as Morse in the PBS Mystery! anthology series should welcome the deeper character development in Dexter's novels." --Chicago Sun-Times "A masterful crime writer whom few others match." --Publishers Weekly

"[Morse is] the most prickly, conceited, and genuinely brilliant detective since Hercule Poirot." --The New York Times Book Review Inspector Morse isn't sure what to make of the truncated body found dumped in the Oxford Canal, but he suspects it may be all that's left of an elderly Oxford don last seen boarding the London train several days before. Whatever the truth, the inspector knows it won't be simple--it never is. As he retraces Professor Browne-Smith's route through a London netherworld of topless bars and fancy bordellos, his forebodings are fulfilled. The evidence mounts; so do the bodies. So Morse downs another pint, unleashes his pit bull instincts, and solves a mystery that defies all logic. "[Dexter] is a magician with character, story construction, and the English language. . . . Colin Dexter and Morse are treasures of the genre." --Mystery News "It is a delight to watch this brilliant, quirky man deduce." --Minneapolis Star & Tribune

Much too early on New Year's Day, a grumpy Inspector Morse is summoned to investigate a murder at the Haworth Hotel. The victim is still wearing the Rastafarian costume that won him first prize at the hotel's New Year's Eve party; his female companion and the other guests in the annexe have vanished. It's a mystery that's a stretch even for Morse. But with pit-bull fervor he grabs the truth by the throat and shakes loose the bizarre secrets of a cold-blooded crime of passion. . . .

That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse’s muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks... The body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke’s Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22nd June 1859. At around 10.15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in 1989 the body of Chief Inspector Morse – though very much alive – was removed to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital. Treatment for a perforated ulcer was later pronounced successful. As Morse begins his recovery he comes across an account of the investigation and the trial that followed Joanna Franks’ death... and becomes convinced that the two men hanged for her murder were innocent...

"Superbly clue-laden...A complex and satisfying puzzle." THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE The case seems so simple, Inspector Morse deemed it beneath his notice. A wealthy, elderly American tourist has a heart attack in her room at Oxford's luxurious Randolph Hotel. Missing from the scene is the lady's handbag, which contained the Wolvercote Tongue, a priceless jewel that her late husband had bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum just across the street. Morse proceeds to spend a great deal of time thinking--and drinking--in the hotel's bar, certain the solution is close at hand--until conflicting stories, suspicious doings, and a real murder convince him otherwise.... "It is a delight to watch this brilliant, quirky man [Morse] deduce." MINNEAPOLIS STAR & TRIBUNE

"Cunning...Your imagination will be frenetically flapping its wings until the very last chapter." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD Morse is enjoying a rare if unsatisfying holiday in Dorset when the first letter appears in THE TIMES. A year before, a stunning Swedish student disappeared from Oxfordshire, leaving behind a rucksack with her identification. As the lady was dishy, young, and traveling alone, the Thames Valley Police suspected foul play. But without a body, and with precious few clues, the investigation ground to a halt. Now it seems that someone who can hold back no longer is composing clue-laden poetry that begins an enthusiastic correspondence among England's news-reading public. Not one to be left behind, Morse writes a letter of his own--and follows a twisting path through the Wytham Woods that leads to a most shocking murder.

“Audacious and amusing . . . may be the best book yet in this deservedly celebrated series.”— The Wall Street Journal It was only the second time Inspector Morse had ever taken over a murder enquiry after the preliminary—invariably dramatic—discovery and sweep of the crime scene. Secretly pleased to have missed the blood and gore, Morse and the faithful Lewis go about finding the killer who stabbed Dr. Felix McClure, late of Wolsey College. In another part of Oxford, three women—a housecleaner, a schoolteacher, and a prostitute—are playing out a drama that has long been unfolding. It will take much brain work, many pints, and not a little anguish before Morse sees the startling connections between McClure's death and the daughters of Cain. . . . Praise for The Daughters of Cain “Very cleverly constructed. . . Dexter writes with an urbanity and range of reference that is all his own.” — Los Angeles Times “ You don’t really know Morse until you’ve read him. . . . Viewers who have enjoyed British actor John Thaw as Morse in the PBS Mystery! anthology series should welcome the deeper character development in Dexter’s novels.” — Chicago Sun-Times “A masterful crime writer whom few others match.” — Publishers Weekly

Oxford, England.  A shot rings out in the early morning on Bloxham Drive. A young woman is murdered while having breakfast in her apartment. At nearby Lonsdale College, the peaceful quadrangle seems insulated from the everyday realities of the entire outside world, let alone this recent murder.  Yet Lonsdale is not as tranquil as it appears.  The Master of the college is about to retire, and two senior dons, Denis Cornford and Julian Storrs, are discreetly competing  to succeed him. Meanwhile, their wives are involved in a more openly venomous competition of their own. For Chief Inspector Morse and his partner, Sergeant Lewis, the murder investigation leads to a tabloid journalist, to the strip clubs of Soho, and, eventually, back to the university. A disturbing question rises to the surface:  Is the Mastership of Lonsdale worth killing for?

First edition, first printing hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, in good condition. Jacket is a little scuffed, and edges are creased and nicked. Board spine ends are bumped, and spine is slightly cocked. Binding is sound and pages are clear. LW