Book Log 2009 #17: The Wench is Dead by Colin Dexter

While in hospital for a bleeding ulcer, Inspector Morse receives a monograph about a killing along an Oxford canal that had taken place over a century earlier. While he resists reading it (concerned for the quality of the self-published work), when he does finally pick it up he becomes engrossed, coming to the conclusion that the crime did not take place as reported, and that the men punished for it were innocent. Morse conducts his own investigation from his sick bed, enlisting the help of Sargent Lewis, some nurses on the ward, and other visitors.

It's a nice twist on the usual Morse investigation, though I did miss the way past stories would cut from the investigation to follow suspects (the text of the monograph didn't quite cut it for me in this respect). Getting to see more of Morse's personal life, most notably his first significant brush with mortality, is a plus as well. A different but - as expected - highly entertaining entry in the series.