Death is Now my Neighbour by Colin Dexter ****
Reading dates: 17 March – 14 April 2026
Inspector Morse novels in order:
- Last Bus to Woodstock ****
- Last Seen Wearing***
- The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn***
- Service of All the Dead **
- The Dead of Jericho ***
- The Riddle of the Third Mile **
- The Secret of Annexe 3**
- The Wench is Dead***
- The Jewel That Was Ours****
- The Way Through the Woods*****
- The Daughters of Cain**
- Death Is Now My Neighbour****
- The Remorseful Day****
And just like that, I finished the 13 novels of Inspector Morse … I am sad to leave one of the best characters I have ever encountered in crime fiction. Luckily for me, I will ease off with the short stories, Morse’s Greatest Mysteries.
Death is Now my Neighbour has its problems, but is as solid as The Jewel That Was Ours, although the denouement is a little more far fetched, I think. For once, Morse seems to have some success in love and it is in this book that his christian name gets revealed. this made it a nice way to finish the series, a little better than with the breath-stopping The Remorseful Day. I prefer to remember him in a luxury hotel in Bath, writing that postcard to Lewis…
I will miss the epigraphs too, many of which are below.
It is the very temple of discomfort.
—JOHN RUSKIN, The Seven Lamps of Architecture—referring to the building of a railway station
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Mrs. Lewis was a big fan of Agatha Christie, and he’d often promised to take her to Cholsey churchyard where the great crime novelist was buried.
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For example, in such enumerations as “French, German, Italian and Spanish,” the two commas take the place of “ands”; there is no comma after “Italian,” because, with “and,” it would be otiose. There are, however, some who favor putting one there, arguing that, since it may sometimes be needed to avoid any ambiguity, it may as well be used always for the sake of uniformity.
—FOWLER, Modern English Usage
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A Conservative is one who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
—AMBROSE BIERCE, The Devil’s Dictionary
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Morse nodded. “And one final thing, please. My sergeant found some French letters—”
“French letters? How old are you, Chief Inspector? Condoms, for heaven’s sake.”
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The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.
—BERNARD SHAW, Major Barbara
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Initium est dimidium facti(Once you’ve started, you’re halfway there).
—Latin proverb
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“But, as I say—”
“No ‘buts,’ I’m afraid. Then you might be home Saturday or Sunday.”
“But there’s so much to do!” remonstrated Morse almost desperately.
“Weren’t those the words of Cecil Rhodes?”
“Yes, I think they were.”
“The last words, if I recall aright.”
Morse was silent.
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We forget ourselves and our destinies in health; and the chief use of temporary sickness is to remind us of these concerns.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Journals
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Forgive us for loving familiar hymns and religious feelings more than Thee, O Lord.
—From the United Presbyterian Church Litany
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The overworked man who agrees to any division of labor always gets the worst share.
—Hungarian proverb
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Those who are absent, by its means become present: correspondence is the consolation of life.
—VOLTAIRE, Philosophical Dictionary
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The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
—SAMUEL BUTLER, Truth and Convenience
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On Radio Oxford just before Christmas she’d heard P.D. James’s advice to criminal suspects: “Keep it short! Keep it simple! Don’t change a single word unless you have to!”
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Hombre apercebido medio combatido(A man well prepared has already half fought the battle).
—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
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“Is this a question?”
—from an Oxford entrance examination
“If it is, this could be an answer.”
—one candidate’s reply
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