Colin Dexter

Colin Dexter was a British crime fiction author who created Inspector Morse, one of the most beloved and enduring characters in British detective fiction. The Morse novels, set in Oxford, and the television adaptations they inspired have become a permanent part of British cultural life. Born Norman Colin Dexter in Stamford, Lincolnshire in 1930, Dexter studied classics at Christ's College, Cambridge and worked as a schoolteacher and an examinations officer at the University of Oxford's Delegacy of Local Examinations — a career that gave him a deep knowledge of Oxford, its colleges, and its culture. Last Bus to Woodstock (1975) introduced Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse of the Thames Valley Police — a solitary, beer-drinking, crossword-solving, classical-music-loving detective who investigates crimes in and around Oxford with the help of his loyal sergeant, Robbie Lewis. The series ran to thirteen novels, including The Dead of Jericho, The Riddle of the Third Mile, The Secret of Annexe 3, The Wench Is Dead (which won the CWA Gold Dagger), The Way Through the Woods (also a Gold Dagger winner), The Daughters of Cain, The Remorseful Day, and others. The Inspector Morse television series, starring John Thaw, ran from 1987 to 2000 and became one of the most watched and most exported British television programmes in history. It spawned the spin-offs Lewis and Endeavour. Dexter died in 2017, but Morse lives on — a detective who proved that intelligence, eccentricity, and a love of the arts are as compelling as any action hero. The audiobook editions of Dexter's novels are a pleasure, capturing the Oxford settings and Morse's distinctive personality. His books and audiobooks are essential — the work of a writer who created one of fiction's great detectives.