The Daughters of Cain (1994)

Inspector Morse and crimes of the heart; again, I found him more annoying than otherwise. ( )

Three women whose lives are intricately interwoven in two murders - the first of an Oxford Don, the second of his murderer. God help us all.

In one of the best of the Inspector Morse series, author Colin Dexter juggles several intricate plot lines, keeping the reader totally absorbed in each subplot and, especially, in the lives of the characters before he deftly brings them all together in a satisfying ending.
A former Oxford professor, Dr. Felix McClure, is found stabbed to death in his flat. Inspector Morse and his faithful Watson, Sergeant Lewis, are assigned the case. The two discover a suspicious connection between McClure and a ne'er-do-well named Ted Brooks, who himself vanishes suddenly. As you'd expect from the title, the cast of suspects is almost exclusively female, and Dexter does a fantastic job of probing the passions that drive women to murder.
Interestingly enough, the most perplexing question is not so much whodunit as howdunit, and the solution that Dexter provides is very tricky, and very clever. You'd be hard-pressed, though, to find a writer plays more fairly with clues; all the information necessary to deduce the solution is there, albeit hidden in plain sight.
An excellent read. ( )

Not really my cup of tea. Far too many words and I just didn't feel like the story flowed at all. I guess since I know Inspector Morse from the TV so well, it was always going to be tough to read the books. He is rather a different character in the book from the TV. Still OK to read, but I won't rush out to bye another one. ( )

Eleventh in the Inspector Morse British police procedural series in which a college professor is brutally stabbed to death in his home early one Sunday morning. The suspects are many and the tale is complex, revealed bit by bit so that you can guess parts of what’s happened but not all of it until close to the end. An enjoyable read as always with Morse and Lewis on the case, and again a series I’m sad that will be ending after just another couple of books. I’ve read these all before but they are comfort reads for me and I doubt I’ll ever stop enjoying them. ( )