The Way through the Woods (Inspector Morse Series #10)

by Colin Dexter

Overview

"Cunning...Your imagination will be frenetically flapping its wings until the very last chapter."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Morse is enjoying a rare if unsatisfying holiday in Dorset when the first letter appears in THE TIMES. A year before, a stunning Swedish student disappeared from Oxfordshire, leaving behind a rucksack with her identification. As the lady was dishy, young, and traveling alone, the Thames Valley Police suspected foul play. But without a body, and with precious few clues, the investigation ground to a halt. Now it seems that someone who can hold back no longer is composing clue-laden poetry that begins an enthusiastic correspondence among England's news-reading public. Not one to be left behind, Morse writes a letter of his own—and follows a twisting path through the Wytham Woods that leads to a most shocking murder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804111423
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/28/1994
Series:	Inspector Morse Series , #10
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	318
Sales rank:	267,215
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Colin Dexter twice won the Gold Dagger Award, the Crime Writers' Association's honor for the best novel of the year. He was the author of many novels, novellas, and short stories featuring Inspector Morse. He died in 2017.

Editorial Reviews

One of Britain's most inventive and honored crime writers, Dexter ( The Jewel That Was Ours ) offers another tale in a justly acclaimed series. Again it's a story packed with nuance, wayward angles and bewildering layers of coincidence, all explicated in masterful style. When Oxford-based Inspector Morse sets out to find Karin Eriksson, a young Swedish woman who disappeared while vacationing in England, he opens a Pandora's box of clues and culpability. The missing woman's need for money, four men's need for pornography, and photographs, blackmail and multiple disappearances all play their part in this deliberately baffling mystery, in which virtually every chapter ends on an enigmatic note. Dexter even manages to cunningly subvert the narrative's basic framework toward the end, when Karin Eriksson's identity comes into question. The erudite, irascible Morse remains a delightful character, with his shambling existence, his love for music, his obvious appeal to lonely women despite his slovenly appearance. His pedestrian, loyal subordinate, Sgt. Lewis, buys most of the beers Morse consumes en route to the ultimate solution. Publication of this stunning work will coincide with the broadcast of another Morse adventure on the PBS Mystery! series. ( Apr. )

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Vacationing Chief Inspector Morse's eye is caught by a Times story about an anonymous poem evidently referring to the year-old disappearance of Swedish student Karin Eriksson. A lively, densely allusive correspondence analyzing hints in the poem eventually takes Morse (The Jewel That Was Ours, 1992, etc.) to the Oxford town of Wytham, where a body is indeed discovered. But then the real surprises in this captivating tale begin, as the evidence of the corpse, a telltale roll of film found nearby, and the ring of amateur pornographers implicated in the murder obstinately refuse to confirm Morse's most elementary assumptions. Honest detection, illicit sex, puns and anagrams galore, Morse's trademark drinking and dour byplay with colleagues and suspects, plus a plot as agile as Dexter's best—in short, everything you could possibly want in an English detective story. Bolt the door and enjoy.

Kirkus Reviews