The Way Through the Woods by Colin Dexter

She was called the Swedish Maiden by the officers investigating her disappearance. She was a young, attractive Swedish Girl who went missing twelve months ago near Wytham Woods in Oxford, England. Now, the case has got a renewed interest with the appearance of Cryptic verses which someone has sent to the Police. The Police take the help of the general public in cracking the puzzle. The Police get an overwhelming response from the public who give them different solutions to the puzzle.

Meanwhile Inspector Morse is summoned from his holiday to take over the case which has seen no success in the last one year. Morse and his faithful Sargent Lewis hit gold immediately. They discover human remains in the Woods. Trouble is that the remains are of a male and the elusive Swedish Maiden is still at large. Morse and Lewis investigate a case of Sex, Lies and Photographs.

Review:

By far the most viewed post on my blog has been Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter, and since I gave it 3 stars out of 5, I decided to give Inspector Morse another try. So how did the supposedly best book in the series fare?

Murder must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers

Mr. Death Bredon has joined the seemingly unobtrusive firm of Pym's Publicity. Pym is an Advertising agency where Bredon has joined as the copy writer. But very soon Mr. Bredon discovers that Pym isn't exactly what it seems to be and the reader finds out even sooner that Mr. Bredon isn't who he says he is.

Few chapters in the book and you don't have to be Henry Merrivale(god help you if you don't know who he is) to deduce that Mr. Bredon is actually the Aristocrat Lord Peter Wimsey, who is also an amateur sleuth and has joined Pym in the garb of an overtly curious copy writer to investigate the death of Victor Dean and to bust a smuggling racket.

Review:

Dorothy Sayers along with Agatha Christie forms the female mystery authors duo of the Golden Age of detective fiction. Lord Peter Wimsey was to Sayers what Poirot was to Christie.  Sayers wrote a number of mystery novels involving Wimsey. so now lets get down to the book review.

Last bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter

A beautiful, young blonde is found raped and murdered outside a bar in Woodstock. It is discovered that the victim and a friend had earlier hitched hike to the bar in Woodstock in a red car. but neither her friend nor the
person who gave the ride are to be found, and with no witnesses to the crime The murder in Woodstock becomes an enigma.

The case is handled by the eccentric Inspector Morse and the scrupulous Sergeant Lewis. The two work meticulously to uncover modicum clues and secrets and found out that the murder could have been committed by a perverted voyeur, a cheating husband, a depressed house wife or even by one of the staff at the office where she worked.

Review:
After hearing a lot about Inspector Morse and the writing prowess of Colin Dexter, I decided to give this one a try and I chose the first book in the series. There are in total 13 books in the Inspector Morse series and a very popular and successful TV show which its acolytes swear by.

How did I find the book?