Morse's Greatest Mystery And Other Stories (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
I've heard it said that you can tell a great novelist by the short stories he or she writes. "Morse's Greatest Mystery" is a short story collection by Colin Dexter, the genius who gave the world Chief Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis. The eleven stories include six about Morse and five more mysteries that vary in setting, character, and plot teases. That, indeed, is one of Dexter's many gifts; he is able to tease out a story inch by inch with buckets full of red herrings in a standard Morse mystery and very clever twists in these tales. Character development is another one of his gifts, which is seen fully matured in the Morse novels but also here in all the stories in which--in far fewer words--Dexter makes us care about the foibles of the individuals he can magically make appear.I sped through these stories not because I wanted to read quickly but because I was so tantalized by what Dexter would come up with in the next few pages. A couple of the stories are no more than 15 pages long, including "Morse's Greatest Mystery" itself. "As Good As Gold" tells faithful readers more about the tried, true, and often tested friendship between Morse and Chief Superintendent Strange. "Morse's Greatest Mystery" takes place at Christmastime when Morse (who shares more than passing similarity to Scrooge) manages to solve the disappearance of a sizeable Christmas charity donation collected at a local pub by following a set of clues that completely baffle Sergeant Lewis. In "Dead as a Dodo", Morse gives a neighbour a lift on a rainy day in Oxford and listens to a unlikely story of a girl named Dodo Whitaker who went missing from the neighbour's life. Morse agrees reluctantly to look into the girl's history and solves the disappearance with minimal but key evidence and gloriously intuitive detection. In "Neighbourhood Watch", Morse steps into the local for a beer and solitude and is almost immediately surrounded by friends, one having experienced the theft of his car and its return along with a mysterious letter. Morse also solves this mystery, but this time he has the added advantage of some personal insight into the case. The four-part Morse tale called "The Inside Story" has Sergeant Lewis questioning his own aptitude for solving cases while Morse seems to unearth the right leads effortlessly including, in this case, a crossword clue. Quotes from Diogenes Small (another Morse mystery known to his faithful followers) pepper this story. "Last Call" has Morse and Lewis investigating a murder at an Oxford hotel. Lewis's legwork and Morse's insights track the motions of the persons involved, but, of course, it is Morse's intuition that solves the mystery of the dead man's last call."The Carpet-Bagger", although not technically a Morse story, has the great man putting in several sly appearances while PC Watson and his sergeant solve the disappearance of a prison escapee. "Monty's Revolver" is set in Oxford and has to do with a highly collectible gun that is the focal point of some mysterious double-dealings. "Evans Tries an O-Level" tells the story of a not-so-smart prison inmate who makes a clever escape by outwitting the prison Governor, a chaplain, and several other gents with--supposedly--considerably more brains than the inmate; this one story has more twists and turns than can be read in a shelf-long assemblage of typical mystery books. "At the Lulu Bar Motel" takes the reader to America and some flim-flam artists making a living from fooling the local tourists. Because this is a Dexter story, some interesting twists ensue. The last remaining story called "A Case of Mis-Identity" is Dexter's brilliant one-off about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Having read numerous attempts at recreating Holmes and Watson, I can say that this is nothing short of brilliant and is both true to the Conan Doyle characters and mystery style whilst being a lovable 'homage'.All the stories assembled in this book only make the reader want more Morse and Lewis, more of the stunning City of Oxford, and more mysteries--short or long--by Colin Dexter. Readers familiar with the full-length Morse books will get a lot more out of this than casual passersby. The book, however, stands well on its own because of the delightful twists and as an introduction to the detective it most recalls.
We were not Inspector Morse fans until watching ENDEAVOUR, the recent prequel on TV. Then I tried this collection of stories instead of wading into a novel. It was so-so. Not all the stories feature Morse and Sgt. Lewis. Maybe the best one is an homage to Sherlock Holmes, in which Sherlock and his brother Mycroft match wits, and Watson turns out to be the one to solve the mystery. While owing their inspiration to Holmes' method of crime solving and his working relationship to Dr. Watson, Dexter's stories remind me often of Agatha Christie, with her upper class cast of characters, the multiple suspects, and the way killings seem to come in implausibly epidemic proportions. The "greatest mystery" of the title is really a red herring, as it is the title of a brief, inconsequential story set at Christmastime and nothing like the title suggests. Dexter's free-wheeling narrative style gets rather self-conscious after a while. And some of the Morse shticks are repeated a bit often--like his never picking up a bar tab. The plots in the stories often make use of the same devices, typically adultery and victims who happen to be pregnant. You also quickly learn that every potential suspect is lying or covering up something, all of which requires convoluted and wearying explanations before the story's done.
What do You think about Morse's Greatest Mystery And Other Stories (1996)?
There's a wonderful touch of humour of this selection of short stories - some of which feature Morse. But my favourite is re-telling of a Sherlock Holmes story - in which Sherlock is told quite clearly that his solution is wrong, not just by one person, but by two.The original story is one I remember well, as I've only recently read it - concerning a young woman, engaged, whose fiancée disappears on the morning they are to be married. He disappears just after getting her to agree that she'll wai
—Charlotte (Buried in Books)
I’ll start off by saying that Dexter is just as good at writing short stories as he is at writing novels. Now, how many people can pull that off? I wish I could (and perhaps I may, one day!). So, Dexter’s versatile, and funny, and, in this set of stories, as clever as usual. Herein lies also a nice variety of tales. Some are Morse tales, told within the context of the earliest of the Morse movies that aired on B.B.C. in the late eighties and early nineties. Morse is drinking a lot, but is still in reasonably good health - and he’s full of tricks, like his maker. Personally, I think of Morse and Dexter both as impish leprechauns, sprinkling fairy dust over the pages, tricking and fooling me all evening long. One of my favourite tales in the collection is “Evans tries an O-level” which twists and turns rapidly like a dancing dervish! Clever stuff, and a neat adventure away from the Morse material. Also good is Dexter’s expedition into the land of Sherlock Holmes, “A Case of Mis-identity.” I’ve read only a few Holmes stories, but this, I hate to call it “fan-fiction,” is surprisingly credible. Not many people can write in a turn-of-the-century style. How many historical fictions have tried this and failed? After reading this collection, I realized one of the reasons for my continuing Dexter interest: love in the midst of human frailty. The ending of “Monty’s Revolver,” in particular, is sad and touching - not in any grandiose way - but in a small, way. Dexter has the ability to make us feel for the (emotional/spiritual) smallness of mice and men. Behind and beyond the crimes are real people whose personal dramas, mostly overlooked by the larger world, are poignant and sometimes even tragic.
—Carol
