This series is better on television than in the novels. I think that the author gets tangled up in his own mesh and I had trouble seeing the real solution as any more credible than the first one proposed. I may stop reading this series.

Readable enough, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the previous 2 books. The structure was very similar to that of Last Seen Wearing, which made it feel a little tired, and there's not nearly enough Morse in it.

This, the third of Dexter’s Morse novels, shows more depth in the writing style compared to the first two novels, and much more development of Morse’s character.

"Lewis sometimes felt that Morse was quite unnecessarily coarse." (end of chapter 7)

Re-reading the Morse novels from the start, it was surprising to me to see so much sexism and downright unpleasantness - like Life On Mars, but without the veneer of disapproval. Nicholas Quinn starts of well in this respect, by not being about the disappearance of young women, and also gains by not having anyone fall in love with Morse - whose unpleasantness was toned down a great deal in the TV adaptations. But it is still full of unnecessary comments on the appearance of young women, casual acceptance that women are just out to get a man (and that lewd comments from men are just part of normal interaction).

If you can ignore this, then it is a well constructed and interesting puzzle, easily the best in the series so far.

Colin Dexter's Oxford detective puzzles over the murder of an invigilator in a foreign exam syndicate. Stars John Shrapnel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k4rk

My mum recommended me this book as I've been fascinated by lip reading recently. This was my first time reading a Colin Dexter book and even though my mum warned me how confusing they can get and how you'll need to get the dictionary out every now and then for a new word, I didn't really realise how often that would be. The plot became more and more complex and interwoven as the book progressed and as someone who struggles to keep track of copious amounts of information at once I found it a bit difficult to keep track at times. I'm no Morse but I had fun trying to figure out all the clues and try to solve the case, I particularly enjoyed the hidden code in the letter, how exciting! I really liked this book but for mysteries and cases I think I work much better visually. From this book I learnt 2 new words: obsequious and lugubrious.