Eileen Campion discovered the Phoenix 'Write a Review' Competition by chance and, having " a spare half hour" decided to enter.
Eileen comes from Leicestershire and lists her hobbies as reading, reading and more reading.
Our three judges were unanimous in declaring her review of "The Remorseful Day" by Colin Dexter the winner. Their comments included:
"This book sounds like a disappointing read, and the reviewer - who is evidently a Morse fan, and conveys his/her feeling of being let down in a few neatly-chosen phrases - has focused well on the disadvantages while giving a good balance of plot and opinion. The criticism of pretentious words and phrases is very apt, as is the evident superiority of the TV dramatisation to the book itself."
"This reviewer has had the courage to challenge one of the best known 'names' in crime fiction writing but has criticised the book fairly and with a great deal of humour."
"This reviewer doesn't like the book he/she has reviewed and has very eloquently told us exactly why, rather than just saying "I hated it". Full marks."
For any British reader, the name Colin Dexter is synonymous with that of his most renowned hero, Inspector Morse. There have been around thirteen 'Morse' novels, of which I have read maybe nine or ten (they're good enough to keep me coming back for more, but not so good that I'm first in the queue at the bookshop on the day of publication.)
"The Remorseful Day", is, as the cover states, "The final Inspector Morse novel" and, although reviews of books should not contain 'spoilers', it doesn't need a rocket scientist to work out the ending, particularly since much is made throughout the book of Morse's failing health and stubborn refusal to curb his drinking and take proper care of his diabetes. Yes, this is the book in which Inspector Morse - and, I might add, Colin Dexter - finally lose the plot.
Chief Superintendent Strange asks Morse to take a look at a cold case, the murder of local nurse Yvonne Harrison. Morse flatly refuses to lead the re-investigation, something that would surely have earned him a stiff reprimand from his superiors in a real-life police station, so, as usual, much of the legwork falls to his downtrodden underling, Sergeant Lewis. Yet every line of enquiry that Lewis follows finds him retracing the footsteps of Morse who appears to be conducting his own private investigation into the case. Since his conception, Morse has never been a particularly likeable character, yet in "The Remorseful Day", he grows ever ruder and more obnoxious, taxing the reader's disbelief just a little too much - had anyone gone through life with the same curmudgeonly attitudes as Morse, then it is a fair bet that someone would have punched him fair and square on the nose.
Listen to me..."curmudgeonly attitudes"! This was another point that rankled as I read Morse's last stand. Dexter seems to delight in using the longest words possible and, whereas I like to think of myself as reasonably intelligent, regularly coming across words and phrases like "sesquipedalian", "a plethora of caveats" and "faute de mieux" broke up the flow of the book as I was forced to consult a dictionary time and time again to understand what I was reading. (For heavens sake, why not say cow rather than "...of the bovine ilk"?)
Yes, "The Remorseful Day" is well written, if a little pretentious and highbrow in it's language, but for once Morse failed to be a believable character. Actually, that's not strictly true - he is very believably portrayed as a grumpy, pedantic, elderly man who persistently treats people like dirt. What beggars belief is that his contemporaries stand for his irrational behaviour.
One could ignore Morse's descent into "Victor Meldrewism" if the case under investigation were sufficiently interesting to maintain the reader’s interest. Sadly it wasn't. The book was infuriatingly slow paced, the author seemingly preoccupied at times with road names, car parks and descriptions of pubs and restaurants. For the first time ever, I found myself struggling to finish a Colin Dexter book, willing Morse towards his inevitable demise so that I could stop reading. It was almost as if Dexter, having decided to finally end his very profitable and long-term relationship with Morse, had lost interest.
I came to the conclusion that the reason that Morse works so well on television was that that particular medium cuts out the need for scene setting. The viewer can actually see the restaurant in which Morse and Lewis are respectively downing their pints of bitter and their orange juice – there is no need for any overblown passages of description about the decor. Also, one can see interactions between the actors. If Morse (played by the late John Thaw) pushes Lewis (Kevin Whatley) too far, it is blatantly obvious from the expressions on their faces. In "The Remorseful Day", Lewis seems to metaphorically shake his head indulgently at Morse's barbs and constant corrections, much as one might humour a tired and fractious toddler.
Reading "The Remorseful Day" was like having your in-laws to stay. You don't get on and have to keep reminding yourself that they were the people responsible for giving you the man or woman whom you love sufficiently to want to spend the rest of your life with. Sadly "The Remorseful Day" and I just didn't get on. Whereas I am normally a great admirer of Colin Dexter’s crime novels and have previously spent some very happy hours in the company of Morse and Lewis, I confess to felling quite let down after turning the last page.
