Colin Dexter. The Wench is Dead (1989)

     Colin Dexter. The Wench is Dead (1989) The last of the Morse books until the one that finished him off. Morse is in hospital on account of an ulcer, etc, brought on by bad food, too much drink, too little exercise, and overmuch stress. A fellow patient dies, and his widow distributes a pamphlet written by the dead man, which deals with a murder on the Oxford Canal. Morse becomes intrigued despite himself, and eventually decides that there was a grave miscarriage of justice.He infers that the murder was of another woman, done to collect the insurance on the putative victim. Lewis helps him dig out relevant files, as does the daughter of another fellow patient, who happens to work at the Bod, and so can supply Morse with data he wouldn’t have a hope of getting otherwise. The book is gentler than other Morse books. Dexter seems to be more interested in the characters (the women all fall for Morse, perhaps a clue to Dexter’s own fantasies). I saw the video version of this story some months ago on TVO. It expanded some of the hints in the book, and played down the erotic fantasies, but otherwise was faithful to the book, and as usual well done. **½ (2004)