Book Log 2008 #7: Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter

When we were in England last summer, I managed to land a boxed set of all 13 Inspector Morse books for $14. How could I pass that up?

This is the first of the series, and in reading it I came to a conclusion I should have made earlier: Morse is the British detective version of Dr. Greg House. Both favor their last names, both rely heavily on their subordinates (though Morse ventures less often into actual abuse), both have a taste for controlled substances (though to be fair, alcohol is very lightly controlled), both have more success with the ladies than you might expect, and both are wrong more than once before finally solving a case. Now if only Morse played the guitar, or House liked crossword puzzles...

Anyway, the mystery in the book is a good one, though I'm not sure enough is presented in the book for the reader to come to the solution before Morse does. I suppose that underscores his powers of detection. I probably enjoyed seeing the start of the Morse-Lewis relationship more, based on already knowing how that goes.

If you've not read the books, you should. The movies aren't so bad, either, but they can deviate from the books fairly widely, so be forewarned.