Way Through the Woods

Already a bestseller in Britain, and winner of the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year, The Way Through the Woods is the tenth Inspector Morse novel by Colin Dexter, and his finest so far. It displays all of Dexter's gifts for matching the taut plotting of classic British mystery with rich characterization and witty prose. As always, the central figure is Morse, the cranky, introverted, and intuitive detective whom critics have called the most intriguing sleuth at work today. When a young girl disappears on a hot summer's day just north of Oxford, Morse - to the irritation of his fellow policemen - insists she has been murdered. But without a corpse, how can he prove it? Twelve months later, the case remains unsolved. Then an anonymous letter appears at Thames Valley Police headquarters, containing a cryptic poem that the writer says is the key to the mystery. Morse is on a rare (and stressful) holiday in Dorset when he reads of the letter in the London Times. And so begins the most astonishing investigation even of Morse's unorthodox career. It will surprise no one that only Morse can solve the riddle of the poem. But even the closest reader will be startled by the twists and turns that lead The Way Through the Woods to its resolution.