Mary M. (emeraldfire) - , reviewed on 5/1/2015

The ever-tenacious and intractable Inspector Morse could be on vacation in Greece. In fact, he should be sailing happily around the Greek islands right now - taking his meticulously-planned and highly-anticipated moment of ease, sunning himself beside the rolling waves of the Aegean Sea. Instead, he is investigating a murder that the police have long since written off. Although, he really only has himself to blame this time.

But he finds the crime - the brutal killing of a suburban churchwarden - remarkably fascinating and extraordinarily difficult to solve. In fact, he believes that he's discovered not just one murder but two; for Inspector Morse suspects that the fatal fall of St. Frideswide's vicar from the church's bell tower is actually murder as well. And as he digs deeply into the private lives and the myriad unsanctified lusts of the late vicar's erring flock, the list of the dead only grows longer.

Not even the oddly appealing woman he finds scrubbing the floor of the church can properly compensate Inspector Morse for the imposition he has brought upon himself. Most especially not for the high risk of probable danger he's bound to get himself into. So he has another pint, follows his hunches, and settles in to untangle the deadly business of homicide...

I must say that I really enjoyed reading this book. I think that I may have several of Colin Dexter's books on my bookshelf, although this is the first one that I've read. In my opinion, this story was quintessentially English - the writing seemed to be slightly grandiose to me; maybe even a tad pompous. Although, I would say that my feelings are due in large part to Colin Dexter's writing style; Inspector Morse is probably meant to come across as supercilious and slightly overbearing.

I found the mystery itself to be rather convoluted as well, but still very intriguing for me to read. Overall, I found Service of All the Dead by Colin Dexter to be quite good and very enjoyable - I would give it a B+!

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