The Dead of Jericho (Inspector Morse)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
'The writing is highly intelligent, the atomosphere metancholy, the effect haunting' DAILY TELEGRAPH
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Winner of the CWA Silver Dagger Award – 'The writing is highly intelligent, the atmosphere melancholy, the effect haunting' Daily Telegraph
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of Dexter's first Morse novels and the characters are as strong as you would expect, but as yet the characters were very much his and hadn't, morphed into the characters we know from the television adaptations. Lewis was the older of the two, a granddad at this point! Though his character is otherwise much the same, an egg and chip loving Geordie with an innocent honesty. Morse actually drove a Ford Lancia, not having graduated to the Jaguar. Morse was still surly and generally unpleasant but the relationship between the two is quite different to the one that you are used to seeing on television. They are closer in private for example, as Morse can be found asleep on Lewis's sofa after Mrs. Lewis's egg and chips. But they are more distant in the working life with Lewis playing very much the straight an ill informed and ill imagined Dr. Watson. Though it is a simple who dunnit where you don't actually care by the end of it who actually did do it, it is still well crafted and presented. These books can sometimes jar with what you know as Morse and Lewis so it isn't always easy to see them as stand alone works of fiction, but Morse always worth a visit in its original form, especially in one of these earlier versions, even if it is only to sit back and list all the ways its different to the version you know!
Format:Paperback
The Dead of Jericho is the first Morse novel I have read, and here's why: Unlike seemingly everyone else, I hated the TV series. Could not stand it. Same with Lewis. I can't abide with all that touristy, Oxfordy, Latin-tagged, academics-killing-visiting-violinists-in-St-Gervase's-under-cloisters stuff. Give me the gritty realism of Midsomer Murders any day.
I've avoided the Colin Dexter books as a result, despite their reputation. So I was surprised to find myself enjoying The Dead of Jericho. It does get off to a tweedy start with a line of Latin in the opening paragraph, but I kept my nerve and ploughed on.
Morse, drunk at a party, flirts with Anne Scott, an attractive younger woman who takes a liking to him and gives him her address. He doesn't follow her up on her offer at the time, but six months later he changes his mind and pops round to her house in the Jericho area of Oxford. The house is quiet but the door is open and he goes in to call out for her. Still no answer, but Morse's instincts tell him that somebody is hiding from him upstairs and he beats a diffident retreat. Later that day, Anne is reported dead. What at first seems like a straightforward suicide soon proves to be the first knot in the very tangled web which Morse has to unpick. He works unofficially at first, not wishing to reveal that he had visited Anne on the same day, but soon comes clean and is handed the case.
Morse is an interesting protagonist. Perhaps I never watched the TV version enough to gauge his character, but I would have summed him up as: crosswords, real ale, opera, grumpy. All of which is true, as his colleague Bell summarises:
`Cleverest bugger I've ever met... he usually seems to be able to see things, I don't know, half a dozen moves ahead of the rest of us... Spends most of his free time in the pubs - or listening to his beloved Wagner.'
(I think `his beloved Wagner' sounds less like a policeman than anything I've ever read.) However, Morse is more than the sum of these parts. He is refreshingly human:
`What an idiot - what a stupid idiot - he was! It was that first, cowardly evasion of the truth that had caused it all - all becuase he didn't want it to be known he had been floating around in Jericho looking for some necessary sex one afternoon.'
Sergeant Lewis doesn't really get to show his face until part three, but when he does, it's clear that the John Thaw/Kevin Whateley on-screen dynamic was pretty accurate. Lewis is in many ways the perfect `Watson'. Whilst my reading of this paragraph is that it is satirical...
`Morse knew in that moment exactly why he always wanted Lewis around. The man was so wholesome, somehow; honest, unpretentious, humble, almost, in his experience of philosophy and life. A lovable man; a good man. And Morse continued in a gentler, less arrogant tone.'
...the Watson role is 100% clear in this:
`He would indeed have been able to work it all out for himself had not Morse anticipated his activated musings.'
To sum up: I'd recommend The Dead of Jericho to Morse fans and the Morse-averse alike.
I've avoided the Colin Dexter books as a result, despite their reputation. So I was surprised to find myself enjoying The Dead of Jericho. It does get off to a tweedy start with a line of Latin in the opening paragraph, but I kept my nerve and ploughed on.
Morse, drunk at a party, flirts with Anne Scott, an attractive younger woman who takes a liking to him and gives him her address. He doesn't follow her up on her offer at the time, but six months later he changes his mind and pops round to her house in the Jericho area of Oxford. The house is quiet but the door is open and he goes in to call out for her. Still no answer, but Morse's instincts tell him that somebody is hiding from him upstairs and he beats a diffident retreat. Later that day, Anne is reported dead. What at first seems like a straightforward suicide soon proves to be the first knot in the very tangled web which Morse has to unpick. He works unofficially at first, not wishing to reveal that he had visited Anne on the same day, but soon comes clean and is handed the case.
Morse is an interesting protagonist. Perhaps I never watched the TV version enough to gauge his character, but I would have summed him up as: crosswords, real ale, opera, grumpy. All of which is true, as his colleague Bell summarises:
`Cleverest bugger I've ever met... he usually seems to be able to see things, I don't know, half a dozen moves ahead of the rest of us... Spends most of his free time in the pubs - or listening to his beloved Wagner.'
(I think `his beloved Wagner' sounds less like a policeman than anything I've ever read.) However, Morse is more than the sum of these parts. He is refreshingly human:
`What an idiot - what a stupid idiot - he was! It was that first, cowardly evasion of the truth that had caused it all - all becuase he didn't want it to be known he had been floating around in Jericho looking for some necessary sex one afternoon.'
Sergeant Lewis doesn't really get to show his face until part three, but when he does, it's clear that the John Thaw/Kevin Whateley on-screen dynamic was pretty accurate. Lewis is in many ways the perfect `Watson'. Whilst my reading of this paragraph is that it is satirical...
`Morse knew in that moment exactly why he always wanted Lewis around. The man was so wholesome, somehow; honest, unpretentious, humble, almost, in his experience of philosophy and life. A lovable man; a good man. And Morse continued in a gentler, less arrogant tone.'
...the Watson role is 100% clear in this:
`He would indeed have been able to work it all out for himself had not Morse anticipated his activated musings.'
To sum up: I'd recommend The Dead of Jericho to Morse fans and the Morse-averse alike.
Format:Paperback
Colin Dexter was born in 1930 and, over the course of his writing career, has won CWA Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger awards. "The Dead of Jericho" was first published in 1981 and is the fifth book to feature the famous Inspector Morse.
"The Dead of Jericho" opens with Morse at a party. Not only is the thirsty lothario making the most of the hospitality, he's also trying it on with a significantly younger lady called Anne Scott. Presumably stuck for company, Anne quite happily chats to him for the rest of the evening and even suggests he calls to see her at some point. Unfortunately, Morse's evening is cut short with a phone call from Lewis and - suspecting a husband stashed away somewhere - takes six months to actually make it to Anne's house. Although someone appears to be in the house, nobody answers when he calls round...so he takes the hint and leaves. He's back that evening though, when news breaks that Anne has apparently killed herself - the news leaves Morse feeling a little suspicious and badly regretting a missed opportunity. His presence is only marginally official, given that DI Bell is in charge of the investigation. Of course, that isn't likely to stop Morse unofficially sticking his nose in.
I had hoped "Service of All the Dead"- the fourth Morse book - had seen the series finally hit its stride. Unfortunately not. While much is made of Morse's genius and his refined tastes, he seems to spend most of his time leering over the ladies and drinking prodigious amounts of beer. (It's well beyond the book's halfway point before Morse officially takes over the investigation and he barely seems capable of turning up for work sober. Five books into the series and it's become very easy to see how Armstrong and Miller came up with Jack Force). Dexter's writing is occasionally difficult to take seriously too : "He was drinking too heavily, he was smoking too addictively, fornicating far too frequently...Oh God, how he hated himself occasionally !" (Steady on, old chap. Next thing you'll be telling us that Oxford's schoolboys can call into a backstreet pub for a lunchtime pint and a spot of go-go dancing). Easily enough read overall, but it really isn't that difficult to find something a good deal better.
"The Dead of Jericho" opens with Morse at a party. Not only is the thirsty lothario making the most of the hospitality, he's also trying it on with a significantly younger lady called Anne Scott. Presumably stuck for company, Anne quite happily chats to him for the rest of the evening and even suggests he calls to see her at some point. Unfortunately, Morse's evening is cut short with a phone call from Lewis and - suspecting a husband stashed away somewhere - takes six months to actually make it to Anne's house. Although someone appears to be in the house, nobody answers when he calls round...so he takes the hint and leaves. He's back that evening though, when news breaks that Anne has apparently killed herself - the news leaves Morse feeling a little suspicious and badly regretting a missed opportunity. His presence is only marginally official, given that DI Bell is in charge of the investigation. Of course, that isn't likely to stop Morse unofficially sticking his nose in.
I had hoped "Service of All the Dead"- the fourth Morse book - had seen the series finally hit its stride. Unfortunately not. While much is made of Morse's genius and his refined tastes, he seems to spend most of his time leering over the ladies and drinking prodigious amounts of beer. (It's well beyond the book's halfway point before Morse officially takes over the investigation and he barely seems capable of turning up for work sober. Five books into the series and it's become very easy to see how Armstrong and Miller came up with Jack Force). Dexter's writing is occasionally difficult to take seriously too : "He was drinking too heavily, he was smoking too addictively, fornicating far too frequently...Oh God, how he hated himself occasionally !" (Steady on, old chap. Next thing you'll be telling us that Oxford's schoolboys can call into a backstreet pub for a lunchtime pint and a spot of go-go dancing). Easily enough read overall, but it really isn't that difficult to find something a good deal better.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Morse is the greatest detective
This is a fine crime novel from Colin Dexter. A woman romantically involved with Morse is found hanged in her home in Jericho, Oxford. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. Craig Henderson
The Dead of Jericho
A young woman in Jericho (in Oxford in case you wondered) commits suicide and by doing so sets of a chain of events including blackmail and murder. Read more
Published on 25 July 2009 by Thomas Koetzsch
pretty darn good
This intriguing mystery is another great page turner from Colin Dexter. Set in the Oxford suburb of Jericho, Morse arrives to find an old flame, Anne, dead, apparently from... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 1999
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
