Traditional crime writing at its best; the kind of book without which no armchair is complete
Sunday Times
No one constructs a whodunit with more fiendish skill than Colin Dexter
Guardian
Dexter has created a giant among fictional detectives
The Times
A character who will undoubtedly retain his place as one of the most popular and enduring of fictional detectives
- P. D. James, Sunday Telegraph
The writing is highly intelligent, the atmosphere melancholy, the effect haunting
Daily Telegraph
The triumph is the character of Morse
Times Literary Supplement
Colin Dexter’s superior crime-craft is enough to make lesser practitioners sick with envy
Oxford Times
[Morse is] the most prickly, conceited and genuinely brilliant detective since Hercule Poirot
New York Times Book Review
The Jewel That Was Ours is the ninth novel in the Oxford-set detective series from Colin Dexter. As portrayed by John Thaw in ITV's Inspector Morse.
He looked overweight around the midriff, though nowhere else, and she wondered whether perhaps he drank too much. He looked weary, as if he had been up most of the night conducting his investigations . . .
For Oxford, the arrival of twenty-seven American tourists is nothing out of the ordinary . . . until one of their number is found dead in Room 310 at the Randolph Hotel.
It looks like a sudden – and tragic – accident. Only Chief Inspector Morse appears not to overlook the simultaneous theft of a jewel-encrusted antique from the victim's handbag. Two days later, a naked and battered corpse is dragged from the River Cherwell. A coincidence? Maybe. But this time Morse is determined to prove the link . . .
The Jewel That Was Ours is followed by the tenth Inspector Morse book, The Way Through the Woods.
Colin Dexter’s bestselling and award-winning Inspector Morse novels are loved across the world. Beginning with Last Bus to Woodstock, the series follows the nation’s most beloved fictional detective in his work as a senior Criminal Investigation Department officer within the Thames Valley Police in Oxford. Morse is known for his penchant for cryptic crosswords, English literature and cask ale, as well as his world-class deductive reasoning.
Written between 1975 and 1999, the thirteen novels proved ideal for television, being adapted by ITV with John Thaw playing Morse from 1987 to 2000. Spin-off shows have also been abundant, with Shaun Evans portraying the inspector in the prequel, Endeavour; as well as Lewis, a series based on Morse’s former Detective Sergeant.