Hello fellow Morsonians and welcome to my third book review. I hope this post finds you all well. I am in a state of anxiousness, trepidation and excitement. I start my university course in seven weeks at Edinburgh University where I will be studying English Literature.

Anyway onto why you are here.

I hope you enjoy the review. Be aware that there will be SPOILERS within this post. However I will make NO mention of who is the murderer or murderers.

Third of thirteen Morse novels.

My edition was published by Pan Macmillan Ltd.

First Published in 1977.

My edition 294 pages.

Novel was first televised on 13th January 1987 . (Series 1, Episode 2)

First Lines of the Novel.

‘Well? What do you think?’ The Dean of the Foreign Examination Syndicate addressed his question directly to Cedric Voss, the Chairman of the History Committee.”

REVIEW.

Those who know me are aware that I rarely read anything post 1950. My favourite era is 18th, 19th and early 20th Century novels, (Most of what I will be studying at university). The reading material I purchase from the past 20 years consists mainly of biographies. So, reading and enjoying Colin Dexter’s novels could be regarded as something of an anathema to me.

However, on re-reading Colin’s novels I still enjoy them. I still find they are a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Dexter’s novels have a vibrancy, a sense of fun and at times a dark, disturbing and chilling tone. That dark, disturbing and chilling tone is not a negative, in fact at times it contains some of Dexter’s finest writing. Here is an example. This is where Ogleby is killed;

In his own head it sounded as if he had taken an enormous bite from a large, crispy apple. His jaws seemed to clamp together, and for a weird and terrifying second he sought frantically to rediscover some remembrance of himself along the empty, echoing corridors of his brain. His right hand still held the tongs, and his whole body willed itself to pull the coal towards the bright fire. For some inexplicable reason he found himself thinking of the lava from Mount Vesuvius pouring in all-engulfing flood towards the streets of Pompeii; and even as his left hand began slowly and instinctively to raise itself towards the shattered skull, he knew that life was ended. the light snapped suddenly out, as if someone had switched on the darkness. he was dead.

That passage always, since I first read it some 30 years, chilled me to the bone. It reads like something from an Edgar Allen Poe or 18th century Gothic novel. The older I get and the closer to that ‘light snapped suddenly out’ the more chilling and upsetting it becomes.

One has the feeling through Dexter’s wordplay that he wants us to lovingly scan the words, sentences and paragraphs individually which will ultimately enable the reader to appreciate and enjoy the novel as more than just a singular entity chained to a bookshelf.

With this his third novel Colin has found his literary feet and this can be seen in the characterisation and dialogue, to name but two taxonomic sections of a novel, where Colin shows great ingenuity with barely any superfluous writing within its less than 300 pages.

If you come to the novels from the TV series you may find some of Morse’s characteristics rather off putting; he smokes, he enjoys pornography and he curses. On rereading the novel I too find the above characteristics rather difficult to take but this is the original Morse, the Morse written by his creator Colin Dexter. Is the John Thaw Morse easier to like? Yes! But the version of Morse contained within the novel is a far cry from the soppy, politically correct inveterate halo wearing detectives that permeated the crime fiction world of the sixties and seventies.

CHARACTERS. (Pictures from TV episode)

Chief Inspector Morse.

Sergeant Lewis.

Cedric Voss – Chairman of the History Committee.

(Not included in TV episode)

Dr Tom Bartlett – Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Examinations Syndicate.

Nicholas Quinn.

Christopher Roope.

Monica Height.

Donald Martin.

Philip Ogleby.

Margaret Freeman – Secretary.

(Not included in TV episode)

Charles Noakes – Caretaker.

Chief Superintendent Strange.

(Not included in TV episode)

Constable Dickson.

(Not included in TV episode)

George Bland.

(Mentioned but not included in TV episode)

Frank Greenaway – Neighbour of Nicholas Quinn.

(Not included in TV episode)

Joyce Greenaway – Neighbour of Nicholas Quinn.

(Not included in TV episode)

Mrs Evans – Cleaner.

Mrs Bartlett.

Richard Bartlett – Son of Dr Bartlett.

Chief Inspector Bell.

(Not included in TV episode)

Nigel Denniston – Examiner.

(Not included in TV episode)

Dr Parker – Ogleby’s doctor.

Mrs Seth – Syndic.

(Not included in TV episode)

Sheikh Ahmed.

Mrs Jardine – Owns the flat Quinn lived in.

(Not included in TV episode)

Police Surgeon (Not named)

Sally Height – Monica’s daughter.

(Mentioned but not seen in the TV episode)

Descriptions of Morse and Lewis.

• Morse is described as having thinning hair.
• Morse has his hair cut in Summertown.
• His bachelor flat is at the top of North oxford.
• “his imagination (Morse) was almost invariably fired by beer, especially by beer in considerable quantities.”
• Morse is described as running “like a crippled stag”. Isn’t this an amazing coincidence as John Thaw did not run in a normal way due to his bad leg.
• Lewis is said to have two daughters. In the TV series he has one son and one daughter.
• Lewis is asked his Christian name. He answers but we the reader are not told. It is said that Lewis does not like his name.
• Morse smokes.

Music Morse Listens To in the Novel

Morse talks of the Solti and Furtwängler recordings of Wagner’s The Ring.

Crossword Clues

In which are the Islets of Langerhans (8) – A – C – E – S (Answer at the bottom of the page).

Pubs mentioned in the novel.

Horse and Trumpet. If there was such a pub in the 1970s it no longer exists.

Donald martin talks about visiting The White Horse, The King’s Arms and the Turl Bar.

Broad Street, Oxford.

The King’s Arms on the corner of Holywell Street.

The Turl Bar closed in 2011. It was situated in Turl Street.

Literary References.

Voss says (pg 22) ‘Remember what old Sam Johnson used to say? “The fellow who doesn’t mind his belly can’t be trusted to mind anything.”

The actual quote from Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784 ) ‘He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.’

—————————————–

Bartlett is described as ” Pickwickian little secretary.” A reference to Charles Dickens novel the Pickwick Papers.

———————————————

Two lines of a poem are quoted;

‘The Grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace…’

This is from an Andrew Marvel (1621 – 1678) poem, To His Coy Mistress.

————————————————

While in a cell Bartlett’s thinks that “like Yeat’s long-legged fly, floating on silence.” This is reference to William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) poem Long-Legged Fly.

Long-Legged Fly

by W.B. Yeats

That civilisation may not sink,
Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
To a distant post.
Our master Caesar is in the tent
Where the maps are spread,
His eyes fixed upon nothing,
A hand upon his head.

Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.

That the topless towers be burnt
And men recall that face,
Move most gently if move you must
In this lonely place.
She thinks, part woman, three parts a child,
That nobody looks; her feet
Practise a tinker shuffle
Picked up on the street.

Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
Her mind moves upon silence.

That girls at puberty may find
The first Adam in their thought,
Shut the door of the Pope’s chapel,
Keep those children out.
There on that scaffolding reclines
Michael Angelo.
With no more sound than the mice make
His hand moves to and fro.

Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.

Differences Between Novel and TV Episode.

• In the novel Nicholas Quinn has a beard.
• Christopher Roope has a beard and long hair.
• Ogleby is described as 53. He is much older in the TV episode.
• Quinn lives in a flat in Kidlington.
• Noakes the caretaker is described as a young man.
• Thames Valley HQ is in Kidlington.
• Quinn lived in a semi detached in Pinewood Close and not the cottage portrayed in the TV episode.No Pinewood Close in Oxford.
• The film playing at Studio 2 in the TV episode is Last tango in Paris. In the book the film is The Nymphomaniac.
• The Dean of the syndicate is based at Lonsdale College, Morse’s alma mater. Not an actual college in Oxford.
• In the book Quinn had an affair with his neighbour.
• Roope and Roope both spoke with a broad northern accent as he came from Bradford. Quinn also came from Bradford.
• In the TV episode a clue that helped Morse was that there was salted butter in Quinn’s fridge and Quinn didn’t like salted butter. In the novel there was already two packs of butter in the fridge when a third was purchased.
• Richard Bartlett has a beard in the novel but is hairless in the TV episode.
• In the novel Morse talks to Richard about Wagner, he doesn’t in the TV episode.
• Richard Bartlett has schizophrenia in the novel. In the TV episode he is described as having an emotional imbalance.
• In the novel Chief Inspector Bell had been involved in Ogleby’s death before it was passed to Morse. Bell doesn’t appear in the TV episode but does appear in other TV episodes like The Dead of Jericho.
• In the TV episode Morse mentions that one of his favourite quotes was ‘No human action happens by pure chance unconnected with other happenings. None is incapable of explanation.‘ The quote is from Hans Gross one time Professor of Criminology at the University of Prague. The quote is mentioned in the novel.
• In the TV episode Morse parks in an Ambulance parking bay. he does the same in the novel.
• Donald Martin wears glasses in the novel.
• Roope smokes in the novel.
• George Bland is on the run in the novel.
• Unlike the TV episode Morse does not become friendly with Oglegy and Ogleby is not a crossword setter.

Latin Phrases.

• The police surgeon says “Mors, mortis‘. Means ‘death of.’
• In a letter to Quinn the phrase ‘O tempora! O Mores!‘ It means, Oh the times! Oh the customs!
• Ad nauseam,  a Latin term for argument or other discussion that has continued to the point of nausea.
• Mirabile dictu, adverb, wonderful to relate.

Miscellaneous.

• The Foreign Examinations Syndicate is based in Chaucer Road. There is no Chaucer Road in Oxford but there is one in Cambridge.
• On Quinn’s office wall there are paintings by Atkinson Grimshaw “of the docks at Hull and Liverpool.”

Hull Docks at Night Painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw

Liverpool Docks from Wapping Wharf by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

• Morse mentions that he lived in Iffley Road, Oxford when he was an undergraduate.

• Monica and Donald Martin were said to have parked in Cranham Terrace when visiting the cinema. Cranham Terrace is in Jericho.

• The cinema Studio 2 is on Walton Street. There is still a cinema on Walton Street, Phoenix Picturehouse.

The Jericho Tavern to the right of the cinema is where Morse enters at the end of the TV episode.

COLIN DEXTER EXPANDING OUR VOCABULARY.

• Senescence: noun BIOLOGY the condition or process of deterioration with age.
• Pellucidly: adjective, admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion.
• Stentoriously: from the adjective Stentorian which means (of a person’s voice) loud and powerful.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Please take time to read the following;

I would like to say a huge thank you to those who have become Patrons of the site and also a huge thank you to those who have made donations. What do I mean by Patrons?

What is Patreon? Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easy for artists and creators to get paid. It’s a membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content service, with ways for artists to build relationships with their subscribers, or “patrons”.

With Patreon you set up how much you wish to pay monthly. There are three tiers, $5, $10 and $15. It’s like paying for a magazine subscription.

Patreon primarily uses Paypal which is easy to join and a safe way to send money. https://www.paypal.com/uk/home

Here is my Patreon account where you can read more about it, https://www.patreon.com/morseandlewisandendeavour

Here is where to find me on Twitch; https://www.twitch.tv/morselewisendeavour

Please subscribe to to my website. Subscribing to this website can be done in two ways.

If you have a WordPress account then click the ‘following’ button. If you don’t have a WordPress account then enter your email and click the subscribe button. Entering the email only means subscribing to my website you will NOT be creating a WordPress account. (WordPress are the company that I pay to use their platform).

To help run my website I have set up a Paypal account for donations. Thank you to all those who have made donations.

My Twitter, https://twitter.com/Jag248RPA?lang=en-gb

My Twitch Channel; https://www.twitch.tv/morselewisendeavour

My Youtube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjIIGCcVpSIFwtRlS8hKWDA?view_as=subscriber

I have started my own Facebook page. It is primarily an extension of this website. I decided to start the Facebook page as there has been times when I have an update to a review post or some interesting news or information but it was all to small to make into a full blown post here on my website. So, come and join and keep up-to-date with all that happens in the Morse universe.

My Facebook Page; https://www.facebook.com/groups/1084993125023468/

Answer to crossword clue: Pancreas.