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The Wench is Dead

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The Wench is Dead

By: Colin Dexter
Narrated by: Kevin Whately
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About this listen

The Wench is Dead is the eighth novel in Colin Dexter's Oxford-set detective series.

That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse's muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks . . .

The body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke's Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22nd June 1859.

At around 10.15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in 1989 the body of Chief Inspector Morse – though very much alive – was removed to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Treatment for a perforated ulcer was later pronounced successful.

As Morse begins his recovery he comes across an account of the investigation and the trial that followed Joanna Franks' death . . . and becomes convinced that the two men hanged for her murder were innocent . . .

The Wench is Dead is followed by the ninth Inspector Morse book, The Jewel That Was Ours.

© Colin Dexter; (P) Macmillan Publishers Ltd
Fiction Historical Mystery Police Procedural Traditional Detectives Detective

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All stars
Most relevant
This is one, if not the best Morse ever. It also transferred to the small screen well. I was never a fan of Morse when it was 'the thing to watch' on the TV but I've warmed to the books - great to see they are coming unabridged!

Best Morse Ever

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His inability to let any mystery go unsolved..even one as ancient as this... plus a tinge of romance for Inspector Morse...enjoyable listen

Different but excellent

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Great story, brilliant narration but I had this on audio book years ago and there are bits cut out. im a bit annoyed its been edited but its not advertised as abridged.

Great story but edited.

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