7:30 PM 12 JUNE 2017
Book 7/13 in the set of Chief Inspector Morse mysteries and for a change just the one murder, a lone victim from a New Year’s party at the Howarth Hotel, Oxford, but lots of suspects. And so ensues the weeding out of the guest list, though it is the customary piece of inspired lateral thinking by Morse, which finally initiates a crack in the impenetrable murder investigation.
Having loosened a thread, Morse tugs tenaciously on it, slowly unstitching the warp and weft of the bigger picture, to reveal innocuous and criminal secrets. DS Lewis is again called upon to anchor the more whimsical notions of his superior. However, on this occasion, Lewis’s role as a ‘critical friend’ appears to be welcomed by Morse and the heat and light sparked by their abrasive interaction and maturing relationship is accepted as a positive price worth paying.
By the high standards set by Colin Dexter this is perhaps the most ‘straightforward’ case so far. Still, the repeated penchant the author has for seeing Morse propositioned by women, beguiled it seems by exposure to the character’s blue eyes and the shortest of police interrogations, remains the most implausible thing in this book, and the series!
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