The Way Through the Woods

I could pretty much copy and paste the review of the last Morse one here. This one is good and irritating in just the same ways, again with the good outweighing the irritating to a large degree. I suppose this is exactly what you want from a series: reassuring predictability.

The main manifest difference between this one and the last is the setting. Where that was effectively a historical mystery, this one is set in the (then) present, as Morse investigates the disappearance of a Swedish student last seen wandering around near Oxford. The plot unfolds in a way that conveniently allows both protagonist and author the chance to indulge their interests in seamy, seedy things, and prompts the contemporary reader to boggle at the lengths to show more which people would go in the early 1990s to access pornography. I could perhaps have done with a bit less of all that.

The present-day setting also makes it much more apparent just how contrived the novel is. All novels are contrivances, of course, but there’s no real attempt here to hide it: we are very much being treated to a display of how clever both protagonist and author are, not at all to anything like a realistic police procedural, whatever the nods in that direction. Again, this is both irritating and good; irritating because nobody likes a show-off, good because the puzzle and the contrivance really are quite clever. Perhaps I’ll end up re-reading all the Morses, though perhaps not in a binge.

Minor notes for one’s own clever-clogs satisfaction: (a) both this Morse and the last make passing reference to Uppsala—does this happen in every Morse?; (b) one of the smart-alec epigraphs is wrongly attributed. Nothing more satisfying than correcting a clever-clogs. show less

On a beaucoup salué les demoiselles anglaises, reines du crime feutré, toutes trop bien élevées pour être honnêtes, si merveilleusement troublantes avec leur air de n'y pas toucher ; aujourd'hui, c'est un Anglais qui vient nous séduire. Il ne raffole pas du thé, mais préfère la bière et le whisky. Il fait des mots croisés, lit Thomas Hardy, ne bouge pas d'Oxford et manque de candeur. Entre donc en scène l'inspecteur Morse. Colin Dexter nous offre là un personnage charmeur comme un héros victorien qui aurait oublié ses inhibitions. L'inspecteur Morse débrouille péniblement ses enquêtes et croise des dames parfois dangereuses, souvent meurtries, toujours déjantées et gracieuses. On est très bien avec l'inspecteur show more Morse. Un doigt - non cinq - d'alcool, des pensées un tantinet lubriques, des souvenirs de livres et l'étrangeté de la vie. Bienvenue au club des ' Grands détectives '. show less

You never know with Morse: three times the case is solved. Each ending feels right but, the criminal is not apprehended until the last few pages.
Not a sparklingly brilliant case but, a good solid whodunnit which, with my poor memory, I shall happily re-read in a few months! Interestingly, the character of Morse is becoming more like the TV persona: the maroon jag has turned up and the more base of Morse's traits have disappeared into the background. It would be interesting to know who is leading whom, certainly this is a less rounded figure; he writes poetry, strsses the classical music and has intentions only for the amour propre.

Three stars for the characters and the mystery, which, in suitable murder mystery terminology, are the bones that Colin Dexter left for the television series to flesh out. The other two stars belong to John Thaw, who made Dexter's male fantasy of a pompous, elitist, slightly pervy detective human and likeable. The screen version of 'The Way Through The Woods' is far superior: the denouement is centred around Lewis and Morse, instead of trailing off in a wordy, self-congratulatory speech; the secondary characters are believable and realistic, instead of mere devices (and this despite Dexter's creative writing class approach to backstory); and more importantly, Morse is shown as fallible and considerate of others. Plus, the nauseous and show more less than credible James Bond element of the detective's persona is toned down - he flirts with the stock 'unsuitable older lady', but does not simultaneously pull the new coroner! Dexter is less than subtle when describing his detective's effortless success with the opposite sex - every woman finds him incredibly attractive, and if they don't act on it, they comment on his good looks and strange charm! Please!

The central concept and creation of the characters does belong to Dexter, for which he receives due credit, but the books are a poor second to the adaptation. show less

Pretty great Morse mystery. Begins with Morse on vacation and hitting it off with a smarty married lady who has lots of affairs and is rather abrasive. Still... the attraction is strong until it turns out she is a little too wildly friendly and is dropped unceremoniously from Morse and the book (left an odd taste). In any case, the vacation is interrupted by an odd letter to the Times about a year old murder case from back home. Puzzling it out, turns out Morse is put back on the case (!!) and starts chipping away at the sordid affair of the wandering beautiful blonde swedish girl (presumed murdered). Great read!

The Way Through the Woods is the tenth book in Colin Dexter's Chief Inspector Morse mystery series. As always, the book centers around the cranky but brilliant Chief Inspector and his long-suffering (but adoring) partner Sergeant Lewis. With settings in Oxfordshire and Dorset, and of course many pubs and taverns in both areas, this one has the oddly-matched duo investigating a "cold case" that had been abandoned by the detectives originally on the job - a case involving the disappearance of a young Swedish woman on holiday in England.

When lovely tourist Karin Eriksson disappeared after visiting Oxford on a summer day just one year ago, Morse insisted that the girl had been murdered. But with no body found, and very little evidence to show more prove his theory, the case was ultimately recorded as a missing persons incident and allowed to fade away, unsolved. Now twelve months later, while Morse is on a rare holiday trip to Lyme Regis, a cryptic anonymous letter appears in the London Times, containing a strange poem that may or may not be a key to what actually happened to the missing girl. Of course, being a consummate puzzle solver, Morse is able to decode the poem and use it to have the case reopened. He and Lewis revisit all the witnesses and go over all the old territory. And in a very unusual turn of events, they're aided in their investigations by letters sent to the newspaper by private citizens with their own ideas about what clues the poem might contain. But with all the twists and turns along the way, can we even depend on those letters and letter-writers to be what they claim?

As usual, there's quite a lot of humor on display here, although much of it very dark humor. And Dexter includes plenty of interesting characters and an abundance of suspects for Morse to wade through. Also as usual, Morse manages to "solve" the case several times before the final conclusion is reached. All in all, a very satisfying outing for Morse and Lewis, and one of my favorites in the series.

A slightly expanded version of this review appears on my blog:
http://jlshall.blogspot.com/2009/04/review-way-through-woods.html show less

This series, so skilfully narrated by Samuel West, just gets better and better.

The novels really are "academic" crime fiction. The plots are never straight forward, and the actual plots do differ a little from the television series. And, as I've said before, Morse is a little different in a number of ways from the character that John Thaw created for television.

Morse is presented warts and all, at times adamantly sure he is correct when he is absolutely wrong. He is a womaniser, definitely a bachelor, not particularly healthy.

I remembered the basic plot of this book but that didn't reduce my enjoyment of it.

If you want a reading project for 2020 then you could do worse than reading the Morse series from beginning to end, either in show more print, or as an audio. I have added the complete list for you at the bottom of this post. My recommendation is to read them in order.

BTW this is the one where Max the pathologist is replaced by Laura Hobson after Max dies from a massive heart attack. show less