Death Is Now My Neighbor: An Inspector Morse Novel [Paperback]

Colin Dexter (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co; Largeprint edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783880642
• ISBN-13: 978-0783880648
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Inspector Morse book yet!, November 29, 1998

By A Customer

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This review is from: Death Is Now My Neighbor (Inspector Morse) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm surprised all reviewers haven't given this book 5 stars. To my mind, it is the deepest Morse book. It is only secondarily a murder mystery. Primarily, it is an exploration of human weakness and frailty.Both Morse and (to a lesser extent) Lewis have developed quite a bit as personalities. I'm very much looking forward to their next case.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "There were passages of conversation which [s/he] shouldn't have heard, or having heard, should have forgotten.", March 22, 2006

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Death Is Now My Neighbor (Hardcover)

When Sir Clicksby Breen, at age 69, decides to retire as Master of Lonsdale College, Oxford, two in-house candidates become the frontrunners to succeed him. In both cases, their wives are at least as interested in acquiring the title of "Lady," which comes with the appointment, as their husbands are in becoming Master, and in both cases the wives have something in their backgrounds to hide.

In this somewhat fragmented mystery in which the action evolves on parallel tracks, Inspector Morse is called to investigate the murder of a young woman, Rachel James, in what appears to have been a case of mistaken identity. She is the next door neighbor of Geoffrey Owens, a reporter who dabbles in blackmail, and many people have reason to want him dead, including both of the Oxford dons and/or their wives.

Filled with red herrings and digressions, the mystery follows the life of the dons, the Master, their wives, reporter/blackmailer Geoffrey Owens, a neighbor who may be providing Owens with an alibi, and even the madam of a house of ill repute. The finicky and grammatically precise Inspector Morse, accompanied by his more relaxed and less educated assistant, Sgt. Lewis, play off each other to provide some moments of good humor, and the reader comes to know Morse in new ways--in his increasing fondness for drink and in his new diagnosis of diabetes. He also becomes attracted to a new woman.

Though the mystery is entertaining, it is less polished than some others in this series. With a large cast of characters to develop, Dexter sometimes allows the overlaps and complexities of the characters' relationships to obscure the issue of who murdered Rachel James in her home and why, and when a second murder occurs later in the novel, the case becomes particularly complex, since the murdered person has been one of the suspects in Rachel's murder. The ending, which ties up all the loose ends, comes abruptly, and the motivation of the murderer is not as strong as it is in some of Morse's other cases. An excellent mystery, but not one of Morse's best. n Mary Whipple

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's all in the characters, April 30, 2001

By 

Stefanie N (Schuyler, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death Is Now My Neighbor (Inspector Morse) (Mass Market Paperback)

With a frighteningly penetrating, ever-active mind, Chief Inspector Morse always attributes more brilliance and originality to the criminal than is warranted. To me, author Colin Dexter's magic act lies in the way he conceals the relative ordinariness of the crimes(and criminals) as we become entranced by Morse's poetic interpretations of them. In this installment of the series we are made privy to the angling of University dons as they vie to become Master of Lonsdale College. There is somewhat less vividness in the portrayal of the academics than I would have hoped--the two competing wives, each with certain similarities to Lady Macbeth, are more compelling. The relationship between Morse and Lewis is quite warm when compared to earlier books in the series, with Morse expressing his appreciation to Lewis in moving terms. The ultimate resolution of the murder relies exceedingly on figuring the amount of time needed to commute between point A and B, which I found tedious. What binds the whole are the personalities of Morse and Lewis. Beyond that we see Morse contemplating life and death with pragmatism and romance, which is what ultimately makes this a haunting book.