Detective Inspector Morse was admitted to hospital and found to have a ruptured stomach ulcer – he was told to lay off whiskey
and any liquor. It was a most frustrating time for him. There were few patients in the room to interest him, except for an attractive lady librarian visiting her father, who was in the bed opposite Morse. And of course his faithful assistant, Lewis, who visited him and brought 2 books for him to read. He was later given a book, Murder on the Oxford Canal, by the widow of a fellow patient, Colonel Deniston.
The late Colonel wrote about a murder that had happened in 1859. It was a tale of unbridled lust and drunken lechery, the story of a helpless woman at the mercy of coarse and brutally uninhibited boatmen.
Joanne Franks was on her way to London to meet her second husband – her first husband had died in Ireland. She had boarded a barge which was manned by a crew of 4. She was later found floating alongside the canal bank, her face in a state of discoloration and disfigurement. She was identified by her husband, Charles Frank, by a small mark behind her left ear. Oldfield (captain) and his crew, Musson, Towns and a youth Wootton, were charged with murder, rape and theft; however in the final indictment, the rape and theft charges were dropped. They were charged with murder. Wootton was later not named in the final indictment. There was intense public feeling and caused considerable interest among members of the legal profession.
Morse was very intrigued by the mystery that surrounded this murder; the men being accused of murder, not rape nor theft. The court was quick to pass judgment, and the two men, Oldfield and Musson were hanged. Towns was given a last minute reprieve and transported to Australia for life. Morse found too many unexplained clues, and too many questions. There was enough circumstantial evidence, yet no really direct evidence. No witnesses to murder; no indication of how the murder had been committed; no adequately convincing motives.
Morse passed his days at the hospital puzzling over the clues and information gathered for him by Lewis and the librarian. As he got better, and was able to move from the bed, he would take the information he had, and pondered over the puzzles.
Once discharged from the hospital, Morse used his sick leave (he was supposed to rest at home) and went charging over to Bertnaghboy Bay, to search for the grave of Joanne’s first husband. There was no body inside the coffin. He went with Lewis to Joanne’s family house – the house where she grew up, and discovered that Joanne was shorter than the woman drowned in the canal.
He had already concluded that the dead body was not Joanne Franks – she and her husband had been working a scam to collect money from the insurance companies. Morse further suspected that Joanne did not have a first and second husband, they were both the same man. She had started her insurance scam with the supposed death of her first husband. However there was nothing that Morse could do – as he replied to Lewis “It was done a long time ago, Lewis, and done ill”.
Colin Dexter’s books are indeed like the crossword puzzles he loved so passionately – each time you think that the end is near, yet there are further clues to prove otherwise. This form of ‘armchair detection’ makes very compelling reading, as our injured inspector had the combination of brilliance, persistence and sardonic personality to hold the interest of the reader.