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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"And now, for your entertainment and delight, Inspector ...",
This review is from: Last Bus to Woodstock (Mass Market Paperback)
I have known of Inspector Morse (the hero(?)) of this book, for years through TV, so I had a set ideas of what he, and his cases, were like before I read this book. I should not have been so narrow minded. The plot appears quite simple, and at the start, boring. A young, somewhat "tarty" girl gets nastily murdered outside an Oxford pub. She was seen before the murder with a female companion hitch hiking. The obvious suspect (the owner of the car which picks the girls up) comes forward...and all hell breaks loose. The story is quite difficult to follow and slow, but the character of Morse, the Inspector in charge, and his relationship with his new "sidekick" Sergent Lewis, make the book good, and quite compelling. The "shock" ending is not so great a shock, but more a sad one. What makes the story better than average is Dexter's description of Morse's character and the way his mind works, his little quirks and habits. For a first book in a series it is slow, but still compelling enough to make me want to read more. I would not recommend this book if you are one for skipping ahead, or you get bored easily. The slow build up is something that adds to the whole book, if not the basic plot.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Is sex more trouble than it's worth? I keep wanting to find the answer.",
By
This review is from: Last Bus to Woodstock (Mass Market Paperback)
The first in the series of Inspector Morse mysteries, this 1975 story of murder centers on the death of Sylvia Kaye, a young woman who has been found dead in the car park of a local pub by the young man she was supposed to meet. The biggest clues to her death are a letter in code addressed to a woman Sylvia worked for at an insurance agency and a hand-delivered envelope large enough to have contained a significant amount of money. Running parallel with this investigation of Sylvia, her friends, and her free-wheeling lifestyle, is the story of Oxford dons, one of whom is hoping to become the new department chair, a position his wife is very anxious for him to attain.Morse and Sgt. Lewis show only hints of the personalities that will develop later as the series continues. The beer-drinking Morse is a student of literature, and he enjoys discussing the poetry of Herbert Spenser and John Wilmot with Angie Hartman, a young Oxford student. Depicted as something of a young hot-shot, Morse relies on Sgt. Lewis, who, surprisingly, is described as older than Morse in this book and somewhat more adept at police procedure, another difference from later novels and from the TV series. As Morse investigates the insurance agency where Sylvia worked, the young man she was supposed to meet, and life at Oxford, the plot lines, most of them involving "illicit" sex, begin to converge. Max, the pathologist in the series, makes his first brief appearance here, and several quirky characters give life to the mystery as Morse investigates a fairly standard but well-plotted whodunit. Fans of the series will be intrigued to see the characters as Colin Dexter first conceived of them and will delight in making comparisons between this first novel and his later ones. n Mary Whipple
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great start to a great series,
By
This review is from: Last Bus to Woodstock (Mass Market Paperback)
I confess to an unfair advantage .... I was living near Oxford when Colin Dexter first introduced his character, Morse. Dexter was not well known at the time but 'Last Bus ...' was a big success locally. I remember walking or driving the same streets that came to life in his book and I was immediately captivated by the way he brought out the atmosphere of the city and the guilty 'looking over the shoulder' mannerism of the characters. Yes, this was the first of the Morse books and a superb launchpad for those to follow. The way he introduced the setting, the characters to his new readershhip ... Of course, the rest is history. Curiously, I still think this is the best of his books. Terence Hardiman must have been a perfect choice as story reader - he appeared as one of the characters in the TV production - and would have made a good 'Morse'. Gems of literary devices are many, but I particularly liked the bit about the batsman checking the scorebook. A bit like when another character in a different TV series, coincidentally also played by Hardiman, opens an envelope to read the one word denouement, 'Voltaire.' Have I given it away? I think not, but if you can deduce the guilty party from this, you could do Morse's job better than he can. Enjoy.
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