Title: Last Bus to Woodstock

Author: Colin Dexter

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 314

Rating: 7/10

Colin Dexter – Last Bus to Woodstock

You pretty much know what you’re getting with a Colin Dexter book, because they’re all pretty much the same. And that’s not to say that it’s a bad thing. In this book, Morse investigates the apparent rape and murder of a young girl, and there are plenty of twists and turns along the way to make sure that you question everything that you thought you knew, and to make you wonder which of the characters might have committed the murder.

And, as with most detective novels, there are secondary deaths along the way, although I don’t want to tell you why in case I spoil the story line. Suffice to say that it’s an interesting enough read, and Morse is in fine form here, but that there was nothing in particular that made it stand out from the rest of the novels in the series. In fact, at times, I realised that I was reading it without really taking in the meaning of the words – it was like the mental equivalent of my eyes glazing over.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing -it was an easy read, and I whizzed through it pretty quickly. It’s probably best to think of it just as a quick piece of entertainment, rather than a work of art or a piece of fine literature. It’s just not that memorable, and I even found that I’d forgotten things even while I was reading it – now, writing this review a couple of days later, it’s hard to focus on things. That contrasts sharply with some of Dexter’s other Morse novels, which still stand out fresh in my mind even months after reading them. If I were you, I’d work through the other Morse books first – your call.

Colin Dexter

Click here to buy Last Bus to Woodstock.