The -- --- .-. ... . Code
Review of the Pan Books Kindle eBook edition (2009), of the original Macmillan hardcover (1975)

Something had galvanized the Inspector into new life. But it wasn’t the gay, rumbustious Morse of the early days of the case. Something grim had come over him and Lewis found him a little frightening sometimes. He only hoped they got no more letters upon which Morse could practise his misdirected ingenuity.

I can't take on another vintage binge read at the moment since I am only partly through the current Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine effort. After discovering the recent The Mysterious Profiles series and reading Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse: A Mysterious Profile (2022/orig. 2007/2009) I was still intrigued to re-read an early Morse book to see if they were as clever and convoluted as I remembered them.

Last Bus to Woodstock was our introduction to the often cranky Inspector and his regular partner Sergeant Lewis. I had forgotten that in the books Lewis was actually introduced as the more senior character. Dexter ignored that aspect in the books as soon as the younger Kevin Whately embodied the role in partnership with the more senior Morse of John Thaw in the later TV series. Also I had forgotten that Morse's original car was a Lancia, something that was later changed into a Jaguar when the TV show couldn't find an authentic original of the former.

See book cover at https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JBxzp9AVL._SX900_SY1270_SCLZZ...
Cover image of the Pan Books TV-series tie-in paperback edition of "Last Bus to Woodstock" featuring actor John Thaw as Inspector Morse.

This first book finds Morse mostly set in his ways, except that he isn't yet as tight-fisted with paying for a round of drinks as he later became. He is already obsessed with crosswords and opera and with living a bachelor's life. He frequently quotes poetry. He has a tendency to become attracted to the female witnesses and suspects in the current case, with those relationships always failing in some manner.

He thought of the saddest line of poetry he had ever read: Not a line of her writing have I, not a thread of her hair and felt no better for the thought. - Morse thinks of Thomas Hardy's poem "Thoughts of Phena at news of her death."

The case itself was as complicated as I remember them, with Morse taking several wrong turns until finally pulling out a solution for which most readers will have missed the clues on the way. Colin Dexter's Morse is definitely a candidate for a future binge re-read.

Soundtrack
This can only be the yearning and mournful Inspector Morse theme music by composer Barrington Pheloung, composed for the TV series, in its extended version which you can listen to on YouTube here. The use of the morse code for M-O-R-S-E as the main theme is revealed in the video as well, by displaying the dots and dashes.

Trivia and Link
Last Bus to Woodstock was adapted for television as part of the long-running Inspector Morse series (1987-2000) as Season 2 Episode 4. You can watch the entire episode on YouTube here. Author Colin Dexter's regular cameo in the TV series is at 56'52" where he is sitting behind John Thaw at a lecture. ( )

I have long wanted to read some of the Morse novels. I am a huge fan of the PBS series...all three in fact, Morse, Lewis and Endeavor. This was a good story, well-written, but not up to the TV series itself. Of course, this is the first novel. I have to assume that they get better as the characters become more fleshed out and build. I will probably read others in the series and see. ( )

I thought I'd read this before, I certainly owned a copy, having finished it I'm not so sure. Either way it's an engaging and meticulously plotted mystery. Dexter is extremely good at misdirection and manages to keep the reader guessing that identity of the murderer right up until the reveal. ( )

A great beginning to a stellar series. It's interesting to read Morse and Lewis meet for the first time and see their partnership develop over the course of a case. I felt bad for Morse's love life at the end - poor Chief Inspector! ( )

As most people will already know this is the first Morse book to have been released. Like me, I think most people will have discovered the books via the brilliant TV series with John Thaw.

I think I was lucky when I started as I couldn't remember the exact details of the story-line which meant I wasn't prepared for any of the twists and turns.

The plot is a fairly simple one, Sylvia Kaye and a friend are hitching a lift home from Oxford to Woodstock. Later in the evening Sylvia is found murdered in a pub car park. Morse is asked to investigate and soon discovers that not much is as it seems and a number of illicit affairs complicate the case even more.

The book was written in 1975 and the language is exactly as you would expect from a realistic police drama of that time. Morse is a proper mans man and not shy when it comes to sexist remarks, this may turn some people away from the book, especially given today's ultra PC generation, but I love it. It adds to the realism and also gives a portal into how things actually were back then.

Well worth a read and I will definitely read the next in the series. ( )