Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse, Book 1)

Last Bus to Woodstock is the first book in the Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter. The book opens with two young women waiting at the bus stop planning to catch the last bus to Woodstock. However, after they are told that there are no more buses to Woodstock that night, they decide to hitch a ride. Within hours, one of the young women is found dead in the parking lot of a pub in Woodstock.

While the story was generally interesting and proved to be a challenge to solve, I was less than happy with the lead character of the book, Inspector Morse. He seemed to be a lazy, irascible, bully.
Although ultimately solving the crime, he seemed to have bumbled his way into it. He decides on an initial motive and suspect and attempts to make the crime fit. When that doesn’t work, he moves onto yet another theory (that just – by luck – pays some dividends) and then yet another. In the end, it seems that some of the reasoning that lead to Morse’s solving of the mystery is only introduced in the final pages of the book. (reinforcing the bumbling detective feeling)

I read this book as a group read on LibraryThing and we had a very lively discussion – much of it centered on Morse. While I would most likely read the next book in the series if we read it as a group (there must be something there for this to be such a favorite character!), I would not be likely to read it on my own any time soon.

Rating: 3 Stars