The way through the woods

Midway through this book, I nearly called it quits because I remembered who dunnit. It finally dawned on me that I had seen this Inspector Morse mystery--probably two or three times--on my local PBS channel. But although I knew the who, I couldn't exactly recall the why or how, so on I plowed. I had originally picked up this book to see if Dexter's portrait of Morse and his junior partner Lewis squared with the characters as portrayed by John Thaw and Kevin Whateley. I was not disappointed. It was like a reunion with old friends as I followed Morse from a fortnight's vacation through a thoughtful assessment of the clues regarding a beautiful Swedish girl who had gone missing in the Oxford area the previous year. I found myself marveling at Dexter's ability to provide both subtle clues to the solving of the mystery alongside clever red herrings. I realized, too, what a skillful job Thaw and Whateley had done in faithful recreating the solitary, beer swilling, crossword genius Morse and his sweet-natured, Morse-respecting sidekick Lewis, as well as familiar minor characters such as Morse’s boss, Strange, and the pathologist, Dr. Laura Hobson.