Wed 19 Oct 2011
A Review by Ray O’Leary: COLIN DEXTER – The Wench Is Dead.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
COLIN DEXTER – The Wench Is Dead. St. Martin’s Press, US, hardcover, 1990; Bantam, US, paperback, 1991. First published in the UK: Macmillan, hardcover, 1989. Reprinted many times since. TV Film: ITV/PBS; Season 11, Episode 1 of Inspector Morse in the UK. (11 November 1998), with John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse.
Colin Dexter borrows the premise of one of the finest Mystery novels ever, despite what some may think, Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time, and has Inspector Morse try his hand at investigating a historical crime from his hospital bed.
This crime, however, isn’t nearly as famous as the Richard III murders, and judging by the book’s Dedication, the names of people involved in the case were changed and some of the circumstances fictionalized.
Morse, in Hospital (as they say over there) with ulcers, is given a short Vanity Press tome by the widow of its author, who was Morse’s short-lived roommate. Bored nearly to death himself, Morse reads what seems to be a straightforward account of an 1859 murder; slowly, over several days, absorbing all the facts of a case in which three Oxford canal boat crewmen were convicted of a passenger’s murder, Morse becomes convinced that there was something wrong about the case, and with the aid of Sgt. Lewis and the daughter of another patient, comes up with his own solution.
I sampled a couple of Morse novels several years ago, well before he became Hot Stuff on Mystery!, and I must admit they didn’t make much impression on me. I picked this one up for its resemblance to the Tey classic, and because the nice lady running the Library Used Book Sale kept insisting I could squeeze a few more books in my bag for the “Buck a Bagful” sale.
All I can say is I enjoyed it much more than I had expected.
October 19th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
This has been pretty much my own experience with Colin Dexter. I read one or two of his earliest books when they first came out, and I don’t remember being very impressed with them. Not bad, mind you, but my first impression was that they were only a little more than OK.
So I passed Inspector Morse by when the series started here on PBS, and I haven’t seen any of them yet. I keep meaning to try one of the books again, or watch one of the shows on DVD, but so far, I haven’t.
Maybe this will be the impetus that it will take.
October 19th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
I haven’t read any of the books but this was my favorite Morse episode on the PBS series
October 20th, 2011 at 7:09 am
I’ve read them all, including the short stories, and this is one of my favorites.
I only wish I had an unread Morse still on the shelf.
October 20th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
For those of you who might be interested, ITV in the UK are making a ‘prequel’ to MORSE entitled ENDEAVOUR
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8679592/Inspector-Morse-is-back-and-looking-a-lot-younger.html
October 21st, 2011 at 7:58 am
I missed MORSE on PBS, too. But I keep seeing box sets of the DVDs at Sam’s Club. Maybe I’ll give one a try.
August 23rd, 2018 at 8:12 pm
[…] entry in the Inspector Morse series is highly reminiscent of The Daughter of Time , the much-admired (and […]