Novels by Colin Dexter: The Wench Is Dead, Last Bus to Woodstock, the Dead of Jericho, Last Seen Wearing, the Silent World of Nicholas Quinn

by Colin Dexter

Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: The Wench Is Dead, Last Bus to Woodstock, the Dead of Jericho, Last Seen Wearing, the Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, Service of All the Dead, Death Is Now My Neighbour, the Remorseful Day, the Jewel That Was Ours, the Daughters of Cain, the Riddle of the Third Mile, the Secret of Annexe 3, the Way Through the Woods. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: The Wench is Dead is a historical crime novel by Colin Dexter, the eighth novel in the Inspector Morse series. The novel received the Gold Dagger Award in 1989. In 1859, the body of a young woman was found floating in the Oxford Canal; her death led to a sensational murder trial, and two men were eventually hanged for the murder. In 1989, Inspector Morse is recovering from a bleeding ulcer in Oxford's Radcliffe Hospital. To entertain himself, Morse browses through the books in the hospital's library and comes across an account of the investigation. The little book called Murder on the Oxford Canal tells the story of the murder of Joanna Franks aboard the canal boat Barbara Bray. Morse is soon convinced that the two men hanged for the crime were innocent and sets out to prove it from the confines of his bed. The title of the novel comes from Christopher Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta, the following quotation serves as the epigraph to the novel: FRIAR BARNARDINE. Thou hast committed--BARABAS. Fornication: but that was in another country;And besides, the wench is dead. Colin Dexter based the novel on the 1839 murder of Christina Collins as she travelled the Trent and Mersey Canal at Rugeley, Staffordshire. According to the dedication to the novel, it was Harry Judge, a "lover of canals", who introduced Dexter to the small book The Murder of Christina Collins by John Godwin, a local historian and former ...http://booksllc.net/?l=en

38 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2010

About the author

Norman Colin Dexter was an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels.

He started writing mysteries in 1972 during a family holiday: "We were in a little guest house halfway between Caernarfon and Pwllheli. It was a Saturday and it was raining - it's not unknown for it to rain in North Wales. The children were moaning ... I was sitting at the kitchen table with nothing else to do, and I wrote the first few paragraphs of a potential detective novel." Last Bus to Woodstock was published in 1975 and introduced the world to the character of Inspector Morse, the irascible detective whose penchants for cryptic crosswords, English literature, cask ale and Wagner reflect Dexter's own enthusiasms. Dexter's plots are notable for his use of false leads and other red herrings.

The success of the 33 episodes of the TV series Inspector Morse, produced between 1987 and 2001, brought further acclaim for Dexter. In the manner of Alfred Hitchcock, he also makes a cameo appearance in almost all episodes. More recently, his character from the Morse series, the stalwart Sgt (now Inspector) Lewis features in 12 episodes of the new ITV series Lewis. As with Morse, Dexter makes a cameo appearance in several episodes. Dexter suggested the English poet A. E. Housman as his "great life" on the BBC Radio 4 programme of that name in May 2008. Dexter and Housman were both classicists who found a popular audience for another genre of writing.

Dexter has been the recipient of several Crime Writers' Association awards: two Silver Daggers for Service of All the Dead in 1979 and The Dead of Jericho in 1981; two Gold Daggers for The Wench is Dead in 1989 and The Way Through the Woods in 1992; and a Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 1997. In 1996 Dexter received a Macavity Award for his short story Evans Tries an O-Level. In 1980, he was elected a member of the by-invitation-only Detection Club.

In 2000, Dexter was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.

From Wikipedia

Series:
* Inspector Morse

Awards:
Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger
◊ 1979: Service of all the Dead
◊ 1981: The Dead of Jericho
Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger
◊ 1989: The Wench is Dead
◊ 1992: The Way Through the Woods

Reviews

[Lesa Neace]

The book pictured is an omnibus edition of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse novels. The first is Last Bus to Woodstock which introduces us to the Inspector with all his strengths and weaknesses already intact and ingrained into his character. The story revolves around two girls hitchhiking a ride and one ends up dead a few hours later. The search for the second girl seems the best bet for locating the killer. This series has more layers than most in the genre. Morse is a bit unusual for a detective character in that his logical deductions often turn out to be wrong and Dexter isn't shy about showing the character's flaws as well. The character ages through out the series until the final book, another interesting aspect that shifts away from the norm in a mystery series. There's also the added bonus of the BBC television series in which the author makes Hitchcockian appearances. Then there's the mystery of the Inspector's first name....