- Death Is Now My Neighbour
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Death is Now My Neighbour
Cover of the first editionAuthor(s) Colin Dexter Country United Kingdom Language English Series Inspector Morse
(#12)Genre(s) crime novel Publisher Macmillan Publication date 24 September 1996 Media type Print (Hardcover) Pages 349 ISBN 0333675703 OCLC Number 35774113 Preceded by The Daughters of Cain Followed by The Remorseful Day Death is Now My Neighbour is a crime novel by Colin Dexter, the twelfth novel in the Inspector Morse series.
Contents
Synopsis
At 17 Bloxham Drive, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, a pretty 29-year old physiotherapist named Rachel James is shot almost point blank through the closed shade of her kitchen window early in the morning of 19 February 1996. The shooting took place between 7:00 and 7:30 with a .577 caliber howdah or Lancaster pistol as the pony-tailed young woman was getting breakfast prior to heading to work, her head and upper body silhouetted in the window, as her assailant stood in her backyard.
Unfortunately, none of the other residents of Bloxham Drive can recall seeing anything suspicious that morning, including her immediate neighbour Geoffrey Owens at number 15, a newspaper reporter desperate for the scoop on this breaking news story that happened so close to his home.
Chief Inspector Morse, aided by Detective Sergent (DS) Lewis, soon discovers a cryptic 'seventeenth-century' love poem by John Wilmot and a photograph of Rachel with a mysterious grey-haired man, clues which lead them to the prestigious Lonsdale College, where the rivalry between Julian Storrs and Dr. Dennis Cornford for the position of Master, to replace Sir Clixby Bream, is about to turn deadly.
Morse goes to the extreme of employing a known house burglar and lock expert to learn more about Owens. Morse also diagnoses himself with diabetes, and, after he going to the local clinic to confirm his condition, is immediately placed in John Radcliffe Hospital for five days. He also divulges his Christian name, Endeavour (named after Captain James Cook's ship), for the first time in the series. At the conclusion of the novel, Morse's new love interest, Sister Janet McQueen (a nurse from the hospital), insists that he let Lewis know of his first name and convinces Morse to send Lewis a postcard, which he signs with his full name.
Publication history
- 1996, London: Macmillan ISBN 0333675703, Pub date 24 September 1996, Hardback
See also
- Death Is Now My Neighbour (TV) the TV episode
Sources, references, external links
- Bishop, David, The Complete Inspector Morse: From the Original Novels to the TV Series London: Reynolds & Hearn (2006) ISBN 1905287135
Novels Last Bus to Woodstock (1975) · Last Seen Wearing (1976) · The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977) · Service of All the Dead (1979) · The Dead of Jericho (1981) · The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983) · The Secret of Annexe 3 (1986) · The Wench is Dead (1989) · The Jewel That Was Ours (1991) · The Way Through the Woods (1992) · The Daughters of Cain (1994) · Death Is Now My Neighbour (1996) · The Remorseful Day (1999)
Short stories Morse's Greatest Mystery (1993)
Characters TV series Inspector Morse (Episodes) · Lewis (Episodes)
Radio plays Last Bus to Woodstock (1985) · Last Seen Wearing (1994) · The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1996) · The Wench is Dead (1992)
Categories:- 1996 novels
- Novels by Colin Dexter
- Novels set in Oxfordshire
- Crime novel stubs
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