The Riddle Of The Third Mile (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
The Riddle of the Third Mile is the sixth book in Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series. It dates from 1983, and is not, I fear, one that will linger in the memory. It is chiefly interesting for the back story it reveals about Morse himself, who is now 52. Most of chapter seven is devoted to Morse reminiscing, and an explanation is given following up hints from previous novels. Yes, Morse had attended Oxford as a student. He was an exemplary student and gained a first in "Classical Moderations". At that time he had a bright future ahead of him; two further years to read "Greats" (History, Logic and Philosophy). However a whirlwind romance took up all his thoughts and time. The girl, a fellow student, had her own family problems. She felt she had to return to her parents' home and cut off the relationship fearing she was causing havoc with Morse's studies. Most poignantly, Morse had no money for a train fare to go to see her and sort out the mess. He failed his exams, was summarily ejected from the University, and had to pay back his Exhibition (an extra monetary award exclusive to Oxbridge). His father suggested that he might be able to find a niche in the police force, and the rest, as they say, is history. The yearning Morse still feels for his lost love also accounts for his difficulties in sustaining any romantic relationship. We also learn of another influence. An old tutor of Morse's, Professor Browne-Smith, (who is integral to the plot) had profoundly impressed the young student. Morse's obsession with accuracy in all matters to do with grammar, spelling and punctuation all date from then. These part of the novel make for interesting reading for anyone who has read a few of the novels, or watched a few of the TV adaptations.The novel is nicely balanced between Morse and Lewis, and has a pleasing construction. It is divided into three books or "miles"; a reference to a verse from the Bible, "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain" (Matthew, V:41) It is also possible that the third mile could also be a reference to a particularly elaborate scheme used in the book to lure three of the college staff to London. In fact three is a significant number altogether. There are three books, three brothers fighting at El Alamein and three tutors at Lonsdale University. ("Lonsdale" is a fabrication, incidentally. The college depicted is imaginary, although in the TV series it is Brasenose College which was used.) Each chapter again is headed with a sentence, a stylistic device Dexter has used before. This time though it is not a satisfying literary quotation, but merely a sentence telling the reader what happens in the following chapter, much as earlier novelists such as Dickens would employ.The first chapter is a flashback to the Second World War and a tragic experience at El Alamein. The next four chapters are set in Soho, and the events described are unremittingly sleazy and sordid. Morse's appearance on the scene in chapter six is a welcome relief. Given that the character of Morse fits very well into this kind of setting, is frequently foul-mouthed, disreputable, and often viewing women solely as objects of desire, it is indeed surprising that he can be seen as a welcome contrast to the scenario so far.However, much of the novel from then on is rather humdrum. There is an interesting letter for Morse to decipher. (Both he and the author always seem to enjoy that!) The reader suspects throughout that there may be switches of character; we have been told at the start that there are brothers, and twins. Dexter has enjoyed deceiving the reader with substitutes and switching characters before on at least two occasions, so we are getting wise to this. Toward the end of the novel we suddenly get a flurry of inexplicable extra murders, and by the end we have 5 bodies in total. Dexter explains the circumstances through his mouthpiece, Morse. This character suggests his thoughts on what must have happened to Lewis, as nobody is still alive to corroborate the facts. Or as the chapter-heading says, "Morse almost completes his narrative of the main events - with a little help from his imaginative faculties." This part is fiendishly complicated. Yes, it fits together logically, but is barely credible in psychological terms. In fact one character even has to have a brain tumour to make the reader go along with it. It would have been much more satisfactory if at least some of the events had been hinted at a little earlier, rather than have such a Hamlet-style bloodbath at the end.A bit of an also-ran, all in all. But as one critic has said, "[Morse is] the most prickly, conceited, and genuinely brilliant detective since Hercule Poirot." (The New York Times Book Review) So maybe worth a read, just for this.Also read in October 2003.
Dexter's fans surely know one thing; his plots are kind of thinly constructed and so ends up being somewhere confusingly complex and lost. 'The Riddle of the Third Mile' is very good example of that. I had to reread last few pages twice and even then I was confused. The 'why' behind the crime is not plausible at all and I found myself shaking my head after finishing it. But then being an avid Dexter fan, I don't care much about 'why' behind crime and read his work purely for pleasure of reading. Dexter has this awesome style of narration that I absolutely love and keep reading his books one after another. If you have read any two of Dexter's books (minimum) and have not liked those, you would not like any other of his work. Don't bother to read him in that case. Otherwise he is a pleasure to read!
What do You think about The Riddle Of The Third Mile (1997)?
A really intriguing book. Love Morse from the PBS series. Now, loving him from the books.Beguiling plot. Lots of twists and turns. Of course, Morse figures it out. Or, as in this case, he speculates that he has figured it out. Lewis has no idea about the final solution, but, assists capably. Was trying to read the books in order, but, access from the library scuttled that. Apparently, I'm not the only patron to be doing that. Hence, begun with #6. Since I think I've seen all, certainly most, of the PBS shows, perhaps in order isn't all that necessary. At least, I've seen all the shows that our library has. If more exists, don't know how to obtain them, where to obtain them or even what titles to obtain.
—Ron
One of the wonderful things about crime-novels writen more than 20-odd years ago is that they had no DNA-testing back then. Of course it's a great thing for the real world but for crime-stories it means that so many possibilities for great plotlines get ruined. This book is just possible because there is a lot of confusion about the identity of one body. Today it would be much easier to solve that problem (or at least tell that the body was not a certain person which also would helped a lot) but fortunately this book was written at a time where we didn't yet have all this and so we get another highly enjoyable read.I don't think I can say anything new about this book what I didn't already say in my reviews of the previous Morse-novels. It is again really clever. Colin Dexter is one of the crime-writers who does not think that his readers are all stupid. I've read so many novels where a character mentioned some detail and immediately a warning-light flashed up in my head 'Remember this! It will be important later!' because there were hardly any other details mentioned. Morse-novels are different from this. A lot of details get mentioned and a lot of those will turn out to be not important at all (and with those that are important it is far from clear why they are important).Dexter is also the only author who can write sentences like 'He did not yet know that he'd never return to Oxford' without annoying me because - like almost everything in a Morse-novel - it can easily be a red herring and not mean what you think it means.I did feel a bit let-down by this one because I considered a small part of the solution somehow cheating (view spoiler)[one person involved in the murder acted somewhat irrationally because he had a brain-tumor. I just found that somewhat...convenient (hide spoiler)]
—Aoife
This book was ok, but not great. I've been a fan of the television Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, and now Endeavour for many years and have long meant to read one of the books. I have to say that the tv programs are better. This book had lots of twists and kept my interest, but neither Morse nor Lewis seemed that interesting. Perhaps my judgment is unfair--biased by expecting to be presented with the same Morse and Lewis characters I've seen on tv. I may try one more of the Dexter books to get a better idea, but for now, I'll stick with the television versions.
—Barbara
