Colin Dexter
Personal Information
Description
British author best known for the Inspector Morse mystery novels. Colin Dexter (born September 29, 1930, Stamford, Lincolnshire, England—died March 21, 2017, Oxford) was a British author who wrote 13 acclaimed mystery novels featuring the erudite and curmudgeonly Chief Inspector Morse; the novels inspired the popular British television series Inspector Morse (1987–2000) and two spin-off series. Dexter earned (1953) a bachelor’s degree and (1958) a master’s degree in classics from Christ’s College, Cambridge. He taught classics at secondary schools until his growing deafness made that impossible, and thereafter (1966–88) he worked at the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations, which set examinations for local secondary schools. Dexter began writing his first mystery novel to alleviate boredom on a rainy family vacation in the early 1970s. His novels feature Morse, who is given to theorizing complex solutions to the crimes he has set out to understand, and his more practical and long-suffering partner, Detective Sgt. Lewis. The characters make their first appearance in Last Bus to Woodstock (1975). The crimes in the Inspector Morse novels are convoluted and the plots replete with misdirection.
Books
The Wench Is Dead
In 1856 the body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke's Cut on the Oxford canal. In 1989 Inspector Morse is taken to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital with a perforated ulcer. As Morse begins his recovery he comes across an account of the investigation of Joanna's death and subsequent murder trial.
Classic Detective Stories
Edgar Wallace: The green mamba -- Edgar Wallace: The poetical policeman -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The dying detective -- Colin Dexter: The burglar -- G.K. Chesterton: The man in the passage -- C. Day Lewis writing as Nicholas Blake: The assassin's club -- Sax Rohmer: The case of the tragedies of the greek room -- Muriel Spark: Chimes.
Morse's greatest mystery and other stories
Chief Inspector Morse, the irascible, brilliant detective of the Thames Valley Police, returns in six tales of detection, accompanied by five self-contained mysteries ranging in setting from a prison cell to a hotel lounge in the American Midwest.
The Jewel That Was Ours
A group of American tourists are staying in Oxford, as part of a tour visiting several towns in England. One of them is found dead in her hotel room. Her pocketbook, containing a priceless artifact which was to be donated to Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, has been stolen. Detective Chief Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis are called in and within days, there is another murder. This time, the victim is the very person who was to accept the donation on behalf of the museum. What is the mystery surrounding the artifact, the "Wolvercote Tongue", that would cause such deadly events to take place? Morse and Lewis will get to the bottom of it, unravelling every clue and exposing more than one guilty secret along the way.
The secret of annexe 3
A murder at Haworth Hotel on New Year's Eve, and Morse and Lewis are on the case.
The riddle of the third mile
"Inspector Morse isn't sure what to make of the truncated body found dumped in the Oxford Canal, but he suspects it may be all that's left of an elderly Oxford don last seen boarding the London train several days before. Whatever the truth, the inspector knows it won't be simple--it never is."--Back cover.