Customer Reviews

The Dead of Jericho

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Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series is a must read for mystery fans. Notice that I say the series, not just a specific book. They are all equally good and each one is unique in it's mystery and puzzle. In this book a woman that Morse had met at a banquet is found hanging in her kitchen. Did she commit suicide or was she helped. Morse needs to find out because the woman had left an impression on him six months before at the banquet. By the time the reader gets to the end of the book there is another death that is most certainly a murder in the Jericho section of Oxford (in fact next door to where the woman was found). Morse knows that the two deaths are connected, but what a convoluted puzzle for him to figure out. Everyone involved is lying and that doesn't make it any easier for him, but the irascible Morse figures it out in the end. These books are extremely well-written, and a real joy to read since they are so well-written. The plots are always extremely clever, and they keep you guessing right until the end.

This is by far the best Morse book. It contains all of Dexter's classic elements -- Morse's brilliant mind, his drinking, his limited lady skills -- and inserts them into a classic storyline to create a perfect mystery. This is detective fiction at its finest.

"The Dead of Jericho" (1981) has Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse once again faced with another of his brain-numbing mysteries. The final improbable and convoluted solution will probably puzzle and confound readers to a point of despair. This one involves two sets of brothers, a peeping Tom, marital infidelity, a suicide, blackmail, crucial letters, coincidental car fatalities, and a bucket of red herrings.
At a party fifty-year-old Morse, always a lonely man seeking female companionship meets a woman, Anne Scott, whom he likes, a mature woman younger than he. Forever putting off things, Morse looks her up six months later on the very day that the woman has committed suicide. Morse gets assigned to the case much later.
For the first 125 pages Sergeant Lewis is out of the picture, but during the investigation stages Morse turns on faithful Lewis and treats him very shabbily. Lewis calls it a carpeting when he's being chewed out. Lewis takes it, and short-tempered Morse quickly changes tack and even compliments his dogsbody assistant. Lewis worships his boss and considers him a near-genius. But why does such a brilliant guy go off on such wild goose chases? He thinks his mind is keener after a few pints. There's enough wit and humor in an Inspector Morse mystery to keep readers chuckling.

In the beginning of the story, it was just like another typical mystery story. After a while, the story was getting really exciting. The ending was smashing and the characters was great.I highly recommend this to everyone.

A chance, flirtatous encounter between Inspector Morse and a friend of a friend provides the context for Inspector Morse's interest in a tawdry suicide. The brooding Chief Inspector contemplates what might have been as suicide turns to murder, and murder again ! Sergant Lewis and Coroner Max Bell provide a delicious counterpoint to a puzzle with a light literary undercurrent. A good read !

Colin Dexter was born in 1930 and, over the course of his writing career, has won CWA Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger awards. "The Dead of Jericho" was first published in 1981 and is the fifth book to feature the famous Inspector Morse.

"The Dead of Jericho" opens with Morse at a party. Not only is the thirsty lothario making the most of the hospitality, he's also trying it on with a significantly younger lady called Anne Scott. Presumably stuck for company, Anne quite happily chats to him for the rest of the evening and even suggests he calls to see her at some point. Unfortunately, Morse's evening is cut short with a phone call from Lewis and - suspecting a husband stashed away somewhere - takes six months to actually make it to Anne's house. Although someone appears to be in the house, nobody answers when he calls round...so he takes the hint and leaves. He's back that evening though, when news breaks that Anne has apparently killed herself - the news leaves Morse feeling a little suspicious and badly regretting a missed opportunity. His presence is only marginally official, given that DI Bell is in charge of the investigation. Of course, that isn't likely to stop Morse unofficially sticking his nose in.

I had hoped "Service of All the Dead"- the fourth Morse book - had seen the series finally hit its stride. Unfortunately not. While much is made of Morse's genius and his refined tastes, he seems to spend most of his time leering over the ladies and drinking prodigious amounts of beer. (It's well beyond the book's halfway point before Morse officially takes over the investigation and he barely seems capable of turning up for work sober. Five books into the series and it's become very easy to see how Armstrong and Miller came up with Jack Force). Dexter's writing is occasionally difficult to take seriously too : "He was drinking too heavily, he was smoking too addictively, fornicating far too frequently...Oh God, how he hated himself occasionally !" (Steady on, old chap. Next thing you'll be telling us that Oxford's schoolboys can call into a backstreet pub for a lunchtime pint and a spot of go-go dancing). Easily enough read overall, but it really isn't that difficult to find something a good deal better.

This book is good, yet it is just like any other ordinary mystery book. It has a boring start, but as the story progresses it gets more intense. It starts off like a mystery book. The detective meets with a lady. They get to know each other and later on the lady is found dead in her home. Murder? or Suicide? --The detective is on the search for answers.