The Way Through the Woods [Hardcover]

Colin Dexter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 1992

On holiday in Lyme Regis, Chief Inspector Morse has decided to go without newspapers. But in the hotel he finds himself seated opposite a woman who is anxious to conceal her charms. She is intent only on reading her paper, and Morse cannot help but notice an intriguing headline on the front page.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of Britain's most inventive and honored crime writers, Dexter ( The Jewel That Was Ours ) offers another tale in a justly acclaimed series. Again it's a story packed with nuance, wayward angles and bewildering layers of coincidence, all explicated in masterful style. When Oxford-based Inspector Morse sets out to find Karin Eriksson, a young Swedish woman who disappeared while vacationing in England, he opens a Pandora's box of clues and culpability. The missing woman's need for money, four men's need for pornography, and photographs, blackmail and multiple disappearances all play their part in this deliberately baffling mystery, in which virtually every chapter ends on an enigmatic note. Dexter even manages to cunningly subvert the narrative's basic framework toward the end, when Karin Eriksson's identity comes into question. The erudite, irascible Morse remains a delightful character, with his shambling existence, his love for music, his obvious appeal to lonely women despite his slovenly appearance. His pedestrian, loyal subordinate, Sgt. Lewis, buys most of the beers Morse consumes en route to the ultimate solution. Publication of this stunning work will coincide with the broadcast of another Morse adventure on the PBS Mystery! series.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Vacationing Chief Inspector Morse's eye is caught by a Times story about an anonymous poem evidently referring to the year-old disappearance of Swedish student Karin Eriksson. A lively, densely allusive correspondence analyzing hints in the poem eventually takes Morse (The Jewel That Was Ours, 1992, etc.) to the Oxford town of Wytham, where a body is indeed discovered. But then the real surprises in this captivating tale begin, as the evidence of the corpse, a telltale roll of film found nearby, and the ring of amateur pornographers implicated in the murder obstinately refuse to confirm Morse's most elementary assumptions. Honest detection, illicit sex, puns and anagrams galore, Morse's trademark drinking and dour byplay with colleagues and suspects, plus a plot as agile as Dexter's best--in short, everything you could possibly want in an English detective story. Bolt the door and enjoy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan; Reprint edition (October 9, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333583736
• ISBN-13: 978-0333583739
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,137,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of mystery's great curmudgeons, October 13, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way Through the Woods (Inspector Morse) (Mass Market Paperback)

The history of the mystery is replete with examples of detectives who tread a fine line between the amusingly eccentric and the downright boorish (Sherlock Holmes being the archetype; Poirot, Nero Wolfe, and others following in his footsteps). Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse fits squarely and delightfully in this tradition. If you've never seen the TV series on PBS and A&E, or better yet read one of the books, you're really missing out on something special.

Morse, whose first name wasn't revealed for years, is an Oxford-educated, beer-drinking, Opera-loving, vintage Jaguar-driving, Crossword puzzle maven and also one of the biggest curmudgeons in all of literature. He does not suffer fools gladly, other than his much put upon but continually bemused partner Lewis. His superiors are forced to tolerate his idiosyncrasies and his bibliousness because he also has a uniquely intuitive mind and a knack for solving the most puzzling crimes. In an interesting symbiosis, John Thaw's television portrayal of Morse bled over into the novels and took some of the harsher edges off of the character and Kevin Whatley's Lewis helped to make the character less of a dolt and more of a naïf in the books too.

In this Gold Dagger winning installment in the series, Morse is on an unwelcome holiday when he gets drawn into the case of a year old disappearance of a Swedish girl who is assumed to have been murdered and ditched in the local woods. The largely moribund investigation is reinvigorated when The Times receives a cryptic letter with tantalizing but ambiguous literary clues to the dead girl's whereabouts. As the story unfolds Morse finds himself in the midst of a murder investigation that includes everything from pornography to ornithology. As always, the book offers both a satisfying mystery and the great pleasure of watching Morse and Lewis interact with one another and with suspects, superiors and the various ladies who inevitably tweak Morse's heartstrings.

After a highly successful run of 13 novels, Dexter killed Morse off earlier this year in The Remorseful Day. On the one hand, it's nice to see an author finish a series while he still has his fastball, but Morse and Lewis will be missed. Try one of the books and keep an eye peeled for the show, both are outstanding.

GRADE: A+

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars poetry puzzles, June 17, 2006

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way Through the Woods (Inspector Morse) (Mass Market Paperback)

A young, beautiful Swedish tourist is reported as missing when she should have been at the home of her relative in Wales. A year later, there is still no trace of her and no report of anyone finding her body, even though the woods where she was last seen, were thoroughly combed by the Thames Valley police. Chief Inspector Morse is only semi enjoying a holiday at the seaside resort of Lyme Regis where he reads a tantalising account in the Times, about the missing tourist, now christened the Swedish Maiden by the press. An anonymous writer has put forward a collection of verses which purport to offer clues to the girl's whereabouts. The subject becomes a matter of huge interest to the general public, with different people all contributing their theories. Morse and Sergeant Lewis plough their way stolidly through the maze of supposed clues to a final solution, with lots of red herrings along the way and even a touch of romance for Morse to brighten his days.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A logical puzzle in the best English mystery tradition, November 7, 2005

By 

C. Blanc "Chris Blanc" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way Through the Woods (Inspector Morse) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book has its flaws, but for those who like the English tradition of mystery novels, it's perfect. Inspector Morse is an enigma that grows on us like a new puppy, and he is the perfect vehicle for a labyrinth of clues and intimations leading to a conclusion only an architect of human psychology could create. The writing is crisp and generous with the main characters, although the people who comprise the mysterious events are necessarily given somewhat shorter coverage. All the clues are on the page far before the solution is given. While sometimes it seems as if soap opera narration of the lives of the police takes center stage, it contributes to an understanding of their progress and its hangups, and helps add momentum to a relatively realistic discussion of the plodding process of uncovering clues. Where this book falls down is its uneven dramatic events and its sometimes obvious shifts of narrative to hide vital data, causing a sudden "gotcha" at the end, that's part of the riddle and the joy of seeing this one conclude. I would recommend this to anyone who likes the mind games of British detective authors.