Colin Dexter and Inspector Morse

Colin Dexter's Oxford is populated with adulterous characters, puzzling crimes and the vain glorious Morse. Sex it seems, is the most common motive and everybody indulges in it in and out of marriage. And I thought the English were prudes!

Morse himself considers that he is above the rest of the police. He has Lewis as sidekick to abuse and carry out his routine work. Like Watson, Lewis frequently provides the clue that solves the case unwittingly. But he gets neither credit nor gratitude.

Dexter's stories are in the puzzle solving genre with multiple red herrings. Morse lives out Dexter's fantasies in that despite his age, he is 'strangely attractive' to ladies young and old who are dying to hop into bed with him. Many succeed. I can't work out why they would want to!

The cases themselves sometimes resemble a fevered dream with multiple hypothesis proposed only to be ruled out in quick succession. As I read crime novels for entertainment and not to attempt solving it, this aspect is not so frustrating.