The Riddle of the Third Mile

by Colin Dexter

Paperback, 1983

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Publication

Toronto: Bantam Books, 1988

Description

Inspector Morse takes on another curious case in Colin Dexter's detective mystery series. The Riddle of the Third Mile is the sixth novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series. The thought suddenly occurred to Morse that this would be a marvellous time to murder a few of the doddery old bachelor dons. No wives to worry about their whereabouts; no landladies to whine about the unpaid rents. In fact nobody would miss most of them at all . . . By the 16th of July the Master of Lonsdale was concerned, but not yet worried. Dr Browne-Smith had passed through the porter's lodge at approximately 8.15 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 11th July. And nobody had heard from him since. Plenty of time to disappear, thought Morse. And plenty of time, too, for someone to commit murder . . . The Riddle of the Third Mile is followed by the seventh Inspector Morse book, The Secret of Annexe 3. Colin Dexter has won many awards for his novels including the CWA Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger awards. In 1997 he was presented with the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding services to crime literature. Colin's thirteenth and final Inspector Morse novel, The Remorseful Day, was published in 1999. He died in 2017 at his home in Oxford. Colin Dexter's bestselling and award-winning Inspector Morse novels are loved across the world. Beginning with Last Bus to Woodstock, the series follows the nation's most beloved fictional detective in his work as a senior Criminal Investigation Department officer within the Thames Valley Police in Oxford. Morse is known for his penchant for cryptic crosswords, English literature and cask ale, as well as his world-class deductive reasoning. Written between 1975 and 1999, the thirteen novels proved ideal for television, being adapted by ITV with John Thaw playing Morse from 1987 to 2000. Spin-off shows have also been abundant, with Shaun Evans portraying the inspector in the prequel, Endeavour; as well as Lewis, a series based on Morse's former Detective Sergeant.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member wmorton38

What is the connection between a missing Oxford don and a headless, armless and legless corpse? Inspector Morse is an aggravating but interesting character but the real problem is the plot. It is extremely complicated and farfetched. Any mystery that takes the detective five chapters to explain

what happened is way too complex.

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LibraryThing member jburlinson

The nastiest of the Morse's. Also, the most experimental, in terms of the telling. In some ways, it seems like a cubist version of a Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes novel, with a mystery & its solution linked to events in the distant past.

LibraryThing member the.ken.petersen

There are two things that I particularly like about Dexter's Morse series: firstly, the way that the eponymous hero is aloud to grow with each book. So many of his rival, great detectives, seem to have been transported to the earth in their fully fledged form whilst Morse, like an onion, sheds his

skins gradually, to reveal a deeper self.
The second thing that I really enjoy is that they are perfectly constructed whodunnits: one feels that one is sharing Morse's journey to the crime's solution and so, when it comes to the denouement, one feels that one knows what Morse is going to say: and one does until.... there is always that little twist. What makes the book even more enjoyable is that when one gets to the twist, one acknowledges that the clues were all there in the text. Excellent entertainment!

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LibraryThing member gilly1944

An enjoyable Morse. Perhaps too complex, or at least very contrived.

LibraryThing member Noisy

Up to the sixth in the series now, and they're steadily improving. I've not really considered it before, but I think that each work can stand alone, and there is no real need to have read the preceding books in order.

This one has a more traditional detective fiction structure about it, although

the précis at the start of each chapter together with the third person view give it quite a different feel. The start of the book offers a motive, and then strands are introduced that you know are going to be interwoven in a complex cat's-cradle. Lines are dangled about Morse's early days at University, and his eye for the ladies is apparent although the attachment to alcohol seems just incidental, now. Early motives are questioned as the story progresses, with stolid work by Lewis backing up the flighty Morse. Some interesting twists and turns emerge as the conclusion is reached, but the ending seems a bit rushed.

I really enjoyed the read; it was very comfortable. I was all set to elevate this above the previous outings, but I felt let down by the ending, so I've scored it the same as the ones that preceded it. This book is almost halfway through the series, and I'm encouraged that they keep on getting better and better.

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LibraryThing member whyteb

Good, but very comples

LibraryThing member janglen

I usually love the books in the Morse series but this one lost me completely. The resolution at the end was way too complex. I still don't really know what happened and I lost any interest in trying to follow the explanation. Pity, as I had enjoyed the first part of the book.

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

well you can't reveal much about the plot, it's a who-Dunnit. I enjoy Dexter's spare prose and this is a good example of the grumpy Morse at work.

LibraryThing member Othemts

I'm tiring of the Inspector Morse series as it gets more and more convoluted, with the focus on dramatic twists as opposed to real suspense. This one about murderous Oxford professors turning on one another was pretty dull. Plus it lacks the character development of Morse and Lewis found in

previous books. I think I'll give up on this series, or maybe read one more. Who knows?

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LibraryThing member jen.e.moore

A very fun inside-out mystery where the mystery isn't the murderer so much as it's who has been murdered.

LibraryThing member danhammang

Dexter takes you on a very complicated ride but it holds together well in the end.

LibraryThing member leslie.98

Very enjoyable 6th entry in the Inspector Morse series. In addition to a good mystery with twists and turns, it was fun to learn more about Morse's background & to see Lewis taking a larger part in the plot.

LibraryThing member JBarringer

Convoluted murder mystery that begins with a limbless, headless, unidentifiable corpse, and an increasing list of possibilities for its identity.

LibraryThing member smik

This is another cunningly constructed mystery, plenty of red herrings, so many that we lose sight of others who have disappeared, in our focus on one person. Eventually Morse gets help from a surprising quarter, which throws a very different light on his investigation.

These books are superbly read

by Samuel West, and there's a literary quality to them that is rarely found in crime fiction.

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LibraryThing member TheEllieMo

Weakest in the Morse series so far, with a convoluted and not really believable plot. Saved only by some great lines.

LibraryThing member TomDonaghey

The Riddle Of The Third Mile (1983) (Insp. Morse #6) by Colin Dexter. A young man dies in WWII in a tank fire during a fierce battle. His brother, himself wounded, tries to save him but is ordered away by an officer, himself wounded.
Years later that officer, Browne-Smith, now a Don at Lonsdale

College, Oxford, goes off on a jaunt into the seedier side of London and is not seen again. A torso is found several days later in a nearby river and Morse and Lewis are on the case.
This is a story of revenge, jealousy to a degree, and unspoken hatred. Misconceptions abound amount the victims and their cadre, and of course Morse has his own misconceptions, But in all he does brilliantly. Even as the bodies pile up, and he deals with a killer toothache, he manages to steer a course that, while not true, is good enough.
There are many facets that can prick those who must work and live together, as in the case of a college full of Dons (Professors to us yanks). And academics can be just as mean-spirited and spiteful, or even far moreso, than your average set of workers.
In a way this, like many a Morse novel, feels claustrophobic to me. All pent up within the ivied walls as it were, the regular world passing them by as minor differences escalate rapidly into issues of life and death. Almost feels like being quarantined during a pandemic. But how would we know that?

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LibraryThing member hobbitprincess

This sixth book in the Inspector Morse series was good, but I did have a hard time following it at times. As always, the writing and the characters fascinated me, so overall, it was a good read. I need to pay closer attention to the details. I didn't figure this one out either.

LibraryThing member mstrust

2. The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter. The sixth of the Inspector Morse series. When a body, with all the identifiable parts missing, is pulled from the Oxford Canal, Morse and Sergeant Lewis are sent to figure out who it is and who put it there. The investigation takes them from the

offices of Oxford University to the most seedy London clubs, and along the way they discover the pockets of the university where bitterness had been stewing for years.
This investigation is atmospheric, sometimes complicated, and also fun due to Morse's extreme crabbiness and arrogance.

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LibraryThing member antiquary

Reviewers call this an utter delight and imply it is funny. To me it is rather sordid and depressing. I like the Morse TV shows but not the books. This involves the disappearance of a man who was a cowardly junior officer at El Alamein and is now a professor of Greek history nearing retirement at

Oxford. He is lured to London by a promise of lurid sex and vanishes.

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LibraryThing member ishtahar

The one with the Battle of El-Alamein, Morse's first love and the dismembered corpse at Thrupp.

LibraryThing member tuckerresearch

An early Morse book, pre-TV show. So, Morse smokes, likes porn, and drives a Lancia. There is some Morse background in this one, back to his college days. (Which differs again from the TV shows, slightly.) This one was not made into an episode. For obvious reasons. Spoilers. One, Morse is wrong, as

you the reader knows, though his explanation is reasonable, it is wrong. Morse does that a lot. This one has no real resolution, as every suspect and murderer ends up dead in the end. A complex read though, fun, experimentally told, I think.

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