Sat 21 Mar 2020
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: COLIN DEXTER – The Daughters of Cain.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
COLIN DEXTER – The Daughters of Cain. Inspector Morse #11. Crown, US, hardcover, 1995. Ivy, US, paperback, 1996. Published earlier in the UK by Macmillan, hardcover, 1994. TV movie: ITV, UK, 27 Nov 1996 (Season 9, Episode 1) with John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Detective Sergeant Lewis.
I have not heretofore been a Morse fan. There, I’ve said it. Everyone else seems to be, though, so I thought I’d try another one, as I haven’t read that many.
Dr. Felix McClure, late of Woolsy College, Oxford, is dead. Butchered. Morse and Sergeant Lewis think they know who did it, but they can’t find the weapon, and the man’s wife alibis him. And then there’s the couple’s daughter, a runaway and prostitute strangely attractive to both McClure and Morse.
While the case meanders on, Morse must deal with both his deteriorating health and a potential reduction in rank due to an efficiency study. The former, it seems, is demanding payment for all the years of Scotch, cigarettes, and general neglect.
There’s no question but that Morse is one of the major figures in modern crime fiction, my own lukewarm attitude notwithstanding. Though the amount contributed to this popularity by television is an open question. In fairness, not only did I like this book better than any others I’ve read if his, but there’s no doubt that his characterization is superb.
Dexter writes a particular kind of story: leisurely, convoluted, and told much in the way Morse’s mind works – in fits and starts, and darting this way and that. The prose is excellent, and none of the characterizations are less than very, very good. This seemed to me a bit different in tone than the previous ones I’d read, a bit mellower, even more sentimental.
Bur perhaps I was just in a mood more conducive to enjoyment of it. Whatever. I did enjoy it considerably, and am even tempted to go back and try some of the earlier ones.
March 21st, 2020 at 5:33 pm
Steve, fifth paragraph, “that” not “hat.” I don’t go looking for these, they just jump out at me.
March 21st, 2020 at 8:00 pm
It did me too, once I went back and actually read what I thought I was writing. Thanks! But do you know, when I when into Edit mode, I found another mistake? “wa” instead of “was.”
I’m going to blame this on Barry’s use of 5 point font for his zine. My eyes no longer are equipped to read print that small, even if I’m exaggerating.
March 21st, 2020 at 7:54 pm
Dexter is a superb writer, but I admit I have to parcel out Morse in small doses in print and on screen since he can be more than a little insufferable (Thaw is brilliant in the part, but perhaps too much like the character in the book without the more humanizing element of print).
I liked the series more when I first encountered it, but gradually found Morse less and less pleasant to spend time with however intelligent and well written.
It is without question one of the best written series in the genre, but despite my nostalgia for Oxford environs and the writing I drifted away and never managed to get back.
March 21st, 2020 at 8:03 pm
In the first few paragraphs of his review, Barry could have been speaking for me. Dexter and I are simply not on the same wave length. I’ve tried, and I just don’t get very far into his books, even though I must have tried three or four times. I know others enjoy his work, but even though Barry found himself liking this one, it’s awfully unlikely I’ll ever try again.