Having read all of Colin Dexter's Chief Inspector Morse novels I was reluctant to read The remorseful Day, Dexter's final Morse story because I knew that it involved the death of the great sleuth. However once I realised that the screening of this novel is to be shown in the autumn I succumbed and bought the paperback.


The main plot concerns a year old unsolved murder but running parallel to this is the story of Morse's deteriorating health. The novel switches from one storyline to the other. By the time Morse is rushed into hospital with a severe heart attack he has solved the crime unbeknown to anyone else but he has written his findings in his diary to later be read by Sergeant Lewis.

The reader is left holding their breath in the hospital scene which sees Morse taking his last breath, but perhaps the most touching of all is the way Dexter describes the emotions felt by a sad Sergeant Lewis after the loss of his long time boss and life long friend.

A very moving end!