Review: Last Bus to Woodstock

Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Morse is one of those things you cannot avoid. The show is on the television often, meaning we all have an image of Morse in our minds even if we have not sat down to read the books or watch the show. Although I have never watched the show beyond the occasional snippets when I’ve walked into the room finding my mother watching it, I have been meaning to read the Morse books.

Thus, I decided it was finally time to start the Morse series. As soon as it was available, I borrowed Last Book to Woodstock from the library.

I’m going to be honest and say I’m disappointed by this one. I had high hopes and was ready to fall in love with Morse, but I found myself disappointed by this one. It’s a story that has not aged well and I spent quite a bit of the story feeling uncomfortable by the views of characters and the way in which things were being dealt with. I’m sure at the time this was published people would not have been bothered by these things to the same degree, but reading it now made me uncomfortable.

I may have been okay with such a thing had the story gripped me. As it was, the book did not have the edge-of-your-seat feel you often find in crime series nowadays. It was without the masses of drama and was rather straightforward. It was a simple mystery rather than the convoluted one I had been hoping for. Add in the fact it felt like a desperate attempt to seem smart, and I was indifferent to the happenings.

I may give later Morse books a read, but I’m no long as desperate to work my way through the series.

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