Death is Now My Neighbour

The pessimist in me grieves that I shall never open a virgin Morse novel again: the optimist rejoices in the new horizons open to me. having started with the last Morse case, and them worked from the first to the penultimate, Morse died and then was reborn for me. I was thus able to leave him an ageing but still extant hero.
This was a strong story upon which to bow out. Clues were littered through the story - some accepted, many more left for the great detective to humiliate me at the denouement.
The shooting of a lady who appears to be as ordinary as it is possible to be leaves the detective duo floundering for a while but, with the security of a whodunnit, one knows that the solution will appear.
Morse himself ages, becomes diabetic show more and, finally, reveals his enigmatic Christian name: all in 400 pages. A good read.
Adieu Morse. I promise to revisit your triumphs again. show less

In this penultimate book in the Inspector Morse series, Morse and Lewis investigate the seemingly motiveless murder of a young woman, shot through the blind-covered window of her kitchen by an intruder who came down the back alley behind the houses. Of course, it is Morse who realises eventually that it could have been a case of mistaken identity due to the house numbering.

Morse has a serious health issue which develops in this story but which, in his usual curmudgeonly fashion he tries to ignore as best as he can. He comes up with a number of theories as to who the murderer is, especially when another occurs, and with how it relates to a contest at Lonsdale College where two men and their wives are rivals for the position of the next show more Master. I'm not sure though that the character of the Master as portrayed, although sickening to Morse, is as obviously nasty as in the TV adaptation which I still remember some years after last viewing it.

There is a foreshadowing of the final novel here and an air of sadness especially over the fate of the young wife of one of the characters. But there is some nice interplay with subtle humour between the two detectives and once again Lewis' long suffering nature is to the fore. Morse finally reveals the secret of his first name in this volume, which was a long kept secret at the time. All in all, a solid and page turning 3 star read. show less

Death Is Now My Neighbor (1996) (Insp. Morse #12) by Colin Dexter. The penultimate Morse finds us a bizarre puzzle. A young woman has been shot dead, the bullet coming through the closed blind of her kitchen window. A good shot indeed. The newspaper reporter next door and the rest of her neighbors do not recall anything unusual that morning. The young reporter tries to intrude in the investigation, knowing he is justified by the nearness of the crime.
A 17th century love poem and a photo of the victim with an older looking man are the only real clues at the scene. Morse and Lewis are soon off to Lonsdale College (this is Oxford remember). Along the way Morse evaluates himself and thinks he has diabetes and is off to hospital where he show more meets his new love.
While the mystery is good and the solution better, it is Morse’s revelation of his first name that takes the prize in the story. This is another wonderful mystery by the late Colin Dexter. show less

Yet another in this wonderful series, superbly narrated by Samuel West.

Morse and Chief Superintendent Strange are coming up to retirement, and Morse is beginning to pay the penalty for his drinking in particular, so in this novel he has a medical emergency and the diagnosis of diabetes. But underneath it all, he is still the old Morse, and he and Lewis have a very credible relationship.

If I haven't convinced you yet of how good this series is, how well plotted these novels are, how well Samuel West narrates them, then I guess I never will. But it is not too late to start if you are looking for good quality crime fiction audio.

And for me, just one book to go in the series, but I won't be tackling it for another month or so.

Good, straightforward Morse novel from 1996, with a bit of low-life, some college intrigue, a few crossword clues and literary quotations, Morse drinking too much and unhappy in his love-life, Lewis trying to keep him on the straight and narrow. Nothing too exciting or objectionable, in other words, but also nothing particularly to encourage you to read this rather than one of the many other Morse novels, unless you're desperate to know Morse's first name.

Dexter does have an annoying habit of using narrator's foresight ("little did he know...") a bit too much - this might be an effect of writing novels in parallel with TV scripts, where there is a need for unexplained "teaser" scenes in the early part of the episode.

In this penultimate book in the Inspector Morse series, Dexter has clearly been influenced by the success of the TV show -- Lewis is now explicitly stated as being younger than Morse despite the fact that this contradicts statements in the earlier books in the series. Morse continues to have health issues in this book, but in some regards his character is reminiscent of that shown in the earlier books. This is most evident in his scattershot approach to solving the crime.

I thought that the mystery part of the book was done well. However the mood the book left me with was melancholy -- not only is Morse sick, but the solution of this particular case left me feeling sorry for some of suspects as well (mostly Dennis Cornwall).

Mr Dexter's Inspector Morse is called to solve the murder of a young woman & her neighbor soon becomes a prime suspect. But when the prime suspect ends up dead, Inspector Morse soon finds that not only blackmail was involved but also someone's secret is about to be exposed. Especially when a coveted Oxford University post is at stake. A cleverly devised scheme comes unraveled when an unexpected witness's statement leads to the killer.