Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Wench Is Dead

By Colin Dexter

Inspector Morse is laid up in the hospital with serious stomach problems. To help him pass the time, Sergeant Lewis brings him a book about a murder that took place in the 1800s. Morse finds himself completely caught up in the story of a young woman who was traveling to join her husband and was attacked by the crew of the canal boat on which she was traveling. Two of the men were hanged for the crime and one was "transported" to Australia.
On the face of it, it seems a pretty straight-forward case, a pretty young woman traveling alone on a boat with a crew of men who have been over-indulging in alcohol. But this is an Inspector Morse novel, so of course, things are not as they seem, as Morse dives deep into this old mystery.

This was an OK read. Morse is in the hospital for most of it and all of his investigations are just reading old accounts dating from that time. Not the most action-packed story, for sure.

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