The Wench Is Dead

Fans will not be disappointed in the reappearance of the irascible yet loveable
Inspector Morse, the Oxford policeman who investigates the underside of his
beautiful city. This time Dexter employs his lucid prose to describe a
century-old murder on the meandering Oxford canal, a case chanced upon by Morse
in his reading while hospitalized for an ulcer. Inevitably, there will be
comparisons with Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time , in which her sleuth
simultaneously convalesces and cogitates upon Richard III, accused of the murder
of his two nephews. Dexter's tale is the better of the two. The interior
narrative, that of a fetching young woman who meets death during a
night-shrouded canal voyage, is placed in a contemporary story in which Morse
engages in marvelous repartee with his loyal Sergeant Lewis, with a winsome
female librarian and with others who aid him in researching the crime. A
surprising and inspired solution concludes a jolly good read that juxtaposes
past and present Oxford with imagination and finesse. A new series of Inspector
Morse mysteries is airing on PBS. 20,000 first printing; Mystery Guild
alternate.