Death Is Now My Neighbor [Hardcover]

Colin Dexter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 1997

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?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Inspector Morse, the slightly cantankerous Oxford detective of BBC (& PBS) fame returns in Colin Dexter's intellectual thriller Death is Now My Neighbor. When the Master of Lonsdale College retires, two senior dons are left competing for the single spot that will be the penultimate position of their academic careers. A seemingly unrelated murder takes Morse and his partner Lewis from the strip clubs of Soho on a case that leads unexpectedly back to the manicured grounds of the Oxford college. This puzzling, stimulating, and thoroughly enjoyable British mystery, is chock full of antiquarian clues and literate allusions, making it a rewarding, stimulating read.

From Publishers Weekly

The latest Inspector Morse yarn from the redoubtable Dexter (The Way Through the Wood, etc.) might well be subtitled "Morse Meets C.P. Snow," because part of the plot-about the machinations at an Oxford college to succeed the retiring Master-owes a good deal to Snow's The Masters (Morse even mentions the book in his one-uppish way). There is, however, more than academic politics to this tale involving two murders on a quiet Oxford suburban street, one of which was apparently a case of mistaken identity, and an alibi created with truly fiendish ingenuity. As usual with a Morse mystery, the Inspector's offbeat personality and his odd relationship with his earnestly lowbrow sidekick, Sergeant Lewis, provide much of the pleasure; the plot is entirely workmanlike. Here Morse, who seems to be drinking more than ever, has a nasty diabetic episode, slows down for a while, has a gratifying flirtation that actually ends up in bed and is ultimately forced to pen a touching missive to Lewis that reveals, in that stiff-upper-lip British way, a degree of affection for the man. A treat for buffs, this is also a good introduction for newcomers to an addictive detective. Author tour. (Mar.) FYI: In March and April, PBS will air new Morse episodes on Mystery! During 1997, Ivy Books will reissue five Inspector Morse novels in paper.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 347 pages
• Publisher: Crown (January 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517707861
• ISBN-13: 978-0517707869
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.