Service of all the dead An Inspector Morse novel

Tricky Mr. Dexter (The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn) is again a tad too tricky for his own good in this fourth ease involving Inspector Morse of the Oxford neighborhood. It begins beautifully--40 pages setting up the potentially explosive relationships (adulterous, perverse, and otherwise) among a clutch of people attached to Oxford's Church of St. Frideswide. Then, however, Dexter jumps forward in time--as moody Morse, on semi-vacation, starts looking into the casualties that have indeed ensued at St. Frideswide's: the churchwarden (an angry cuckold) stabbed to death during service, the reverend (a possible pederast) dead in a probable suicide-leap off the church tower, the organist (an adulterer) disappeared, along with his young son and the churchwarden's widow. While Morse sleuths--and develops a strange liaison with a prim/steamy church volunteer--more bodies surface, as do switched identities and such; and, though the characters are fine, the atmosphere perfect, and Morse darkly intriguing, one can only concur when the local magistrate says: ""Doesn't all this seem to you an extraordinarily complicated business, Inspector?"" It is indeed, and only those partial to super-contrived crime puzzles will fully enjoy the benefits of Dexter's wry, cool, quintessentially British talents. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.