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Den første bog med Lewis og Morse.
En ung kvinde, Sylvia Keyes, bliver fundet brutalt myrdet på parkeringspladsen ved den lokale pub "The Black Prince" i Woodstock. Hun havde aftalt at mødes med en ung mand, John Sanders, på pubben og det er ham, der finder hende.
Det er synd for Morse, for han havde fattet mere end sympati for Sue.
Glimrende krimi, men det er lidt urealistisk at Morse løser ting pr intuition mens han bæller øl og/eller whisky. Her gennemskuer han dog to falske tilståelser og det er godt gået.
I denne bog er Morse yngre end Lewis og han drikker stort set hele tiden med en enkelt rygepause ind imellem. Tidsbilledet er også sjovt, Morse kører i en Lancia, man kommenterer på at mænd kan have langt hår som piger, man bruger skrivemaskiner og skrivestuer, telefonsamtaler foregår via omstillingsborde osv.
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Last Bus to Woodstock is the novel that began Colin Dexter's phenomenally successful Inspector Morse series. 'Do you think I'm wasting your time, Lewis?' Lewis was nobody's fool and was a man of some honesty and integrity. 'Yes, sir.' An engaging smile crept across Morse's mouth. He thought they could get on well together . . . The death of Sylvia Kaye figured dramatically in Thursday afternoon's edition of the Oxford Mail. By Friday evening Inspector Morse had informed the nation that the police were looking for a dangerous man - facing charges of wilful murder, sexual assault and rape. But as the obvious leads fade into twilight and darkness, Morse becomes more and more convinced that passion holds the key . . . Last Bus to Woodstock is followed by the second Inspector Morse book, Last Seen Wearing.… (more)
User reviews
Over the next few Sundays, Lady Wombat and I watched additional episodes of Inspactor Lewis until PBS's Mystery! rotated off to some other series of whodunits. Being curious, I did a bit of poking around on the web and discovered that Inspector Lewis was a spin-off of an earlier PBS/BBC series called Inspector Morse, where the Lewis character appeared as Sgt. Lewis. Furthermore Inspector Morse was based an a series of mystery novels by Colin Dexter, the first of which was Last Bus to Woodstock. A quick trip to the library, and I had another book to read...
Overall, it was a pleasant read---with a well-crafted mystery and good writing. It is firmly in the "hardboiled" school of detective fiction, presenting a gritty and ugly picture of humanity, focusing in particular on the sexual foibles of nearly every character---having affairs, buying pornography, engaged to people they don't love, looking for no-strings-attached sex, an so on. Morse, himself, is unlucky in love, drinks a lot, and is generally painted as a brilliant intuitive detective who is not leading a happy life. While I think this was a pretty good book in the abstract, the bleak picture of humanity it presented wasn't really my cup of tea.
An odd aspect of reading this book was how old it made me feel. Characters rely on regular telephones, and even the postal service to communicate with each other! Facts have to be gathered via legwork; there is no internet. Reports are typed, and papers left at the office can't be retrieved electronically. Women are still pretty much confined to traditional gender stereo-typed roles---housewife, secretary, barmaid, and nurse. This is clearly a relic of an earlier age. Yet it was written in 1975---when I was ten years old---reminding me that I, too, am a relic of a much different age.
I may pick up one or two later books in the series to see how Dexter and his characters develop over time, but I probably won't read the entire series.
But man, is it ever dated! 1975 was another world. The oddities of post and phones and secretaries and typewriters are fine, and it's amusing to realise how utterly impossible the plot would be, if only the characters could have just texted each other. But the sexism is very jarring. Rape is not a joke. Grown women are not girls. Three cheers for "women's lib"! I shall rush off and burn a bra in tribute.
This is the first of the Inspector Morse series, and
The first impression is that this is nothing like how I imagine a murder investigation to be. There
The plot is suitably convoluted, and the pace is just right. There is a slight feeling that the work is a little lightweight, and the writing is a little raw: I'm not sure that I'd have continued with the book series if I didn't like the TV series so much.
But this was a pretty boring book. Really, a grown man, a chief inspector, falls in love at first sight with a pretty face? The actual mystery plot was convoluted, and like many Agatha Christie's, only
Last Bus to Woodstock is the first Inspector Morse and sees the initial meeting of the great detective with Lewis. As is often the case with first outings, the story is a little strained in places but a fair yarn non the less. It revolves around sad men using casual affairs to provide the excitement that had left their marriages (hence my earlier quip). When fate throws a small spanner in the works, the fallout is both unforeseen and unfortunate, not just for the participants, but also for those in their orbits.
I had been concerned that, having watched many of the excellent television dramatizations, the books would read as old friends, rather than the sought for new experience. I need not have worried; the needs of the 'box in the corner', had seen enough changes to the storyline to ensure that the book was fresh. Indeed, I was surprised to find that, not only were the characters of the two detectives somewhat different to their screen versions, but that even Morse's car was not the beloved Jaguar, but a Lancia (whatever one of those may look like!).
The writing style, whilst very different to Hill's, maintains the easy knowledge of the English language and my dictionary was needed on a couple of occasions but, not enough to become an irritation. Not a replacement to my regular fall backs, but a new series to stretch their number.
Inspector Morse series Book #1
3.5 ★'s
From The Book:
Beautiful Sylvia Kaye and another young woman had been seen hitching a ride not long before Sylvia's bludgeoned body is found outside a pub in Woodstock, near Oxford. Morse is sure the other hitchhiker can
My Views:
Well I have to say that Inspector Morse is a better detective than "Yours Truly". As a police procedural it was okay. If I had not already been a fan of the TV series and if this book had not been the selection for a group read...and said group was one that I am very fond of...I more than likely would not have even rated it more than 2.5 stars. However...to its credit, the plot was sufficiently complex to keep me guessing...incorrectly I might add...until the very end.
I know that this was Colin Dexter's first novel in the Inspector Morse series and that the book was written in 1975, but the callous way that the author had the characters of Morse and Lewis deal with some gender issues just rubbed me the wrong way. Hopefully the Morse and Lewis characters will be better developed in the future books....but I don't think the next in this series will be a priority choice for reading materials for me.
I think I was lucky when I started as I couldn't remember the exact details of the story-line which meant I
The plot is a fairly simple one, Sylvia Kaye and a friend are hitching a lift home from Oxford to Woodstock. Later in the evening Sylvia is found murdered in a pub car park. Morse is asked to investigate and soon discovers that not much is as it seems and a number of illicit affairs complicate the case even more.
The book was written in 1975 and the language is exactly as you would expect from a realistic police drama of that time. Morse is a proper mans man and not shy when it comes to sexist remarks, this may turn some people away from the book, especially given today's ultra PC generation, but I love it. It adds to the realism and also gives a portal into how things actually were back then.
Well worth a read and I will definitely read the next in the series.
I expected Morse to be quirky yet brilliant. I guess he was that but there were times when I was tempted to replace the word quirky with something more along the lines of unhinged.
What struck me, and other readers that I talked to, most about the book is that Dexter's treatment of gender issues is far from enlightened. Granted, it was written in the 1970s but I came of age back then and I don't remember the people I encountered being quite so -neanderthal - as the characters in this book are. Their thoughts about rape are frightening and the old idea that women who act or dress in a certain manner deserve what they get is, if not said outright, at least inferred more than once. One can make certain allowances for when a book was written but there are limits.
And if all that isn't enough, Morse doesn't even drive his signature burgundy Jaguar! He drives a beat-up old Lancia, whatever the heck that is.
I'm not sure at this point if I will read more Morse books. If I do, I will probably skip forward to a point where Collins writing, and Morse's character, are better developed.
My thanks to M.L. and the The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group at Goodreads for creating the opportunity to read and discuss this book with other readers.
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Omslaget viser kommisær Morse i skikkelse af skuespilleren John Thaw
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra engelsk "Last bus to Woodstock" af Gerd Have
Morse, bind 1
Side 97: Nogle mennesker var fede fra naturens hånd - noget med stofskiftet, eller sådan noget. Men der var ingen fede mennesker i Belsen ...
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813 |