Who wouldn’t want to be like Inspector Morse? “A very good detective,” a fellow officer calls him, in a famous TV episode, Second Time Around, “but a poor policeman.” Oozing savoir-faire, Colin Dexter’s creation was equally at home in both sides of his Oxford setting: town and gown.
Humble origins as the son of a taxi driver aside, what we have here, gentle reader, is a quintessential gentleman detective: a staple of English mystery fiction. Solving crime was a vocation to which he turned a formidable intellect in a good cause. Policing – with its tedious bureaucracy, conventions and pretensions? A pill to be taken in minimal doses, washed down with that famous real ale. Not too much, though – wouldn’t want to put the licence in jeopardy, not with that equally famous Jaguar to drive.
Then again, who would want to be like Morse? Thwarted in love – a portion of his backstory explored movingly in the Endeavour spinoff series created by Russell Lewis. Arriving in middle age with vulnerability buried deep behind a carapace of idiosyncrasies and prejudices. But hidebound? Never.
What, then, can be added to this subtle, multi-layered fictive landscape? What is there to say, and what are the ways to say it, that can be recognised as new, innovative and different? If you’ve read Morse – and watched those sumptuous screen adaptations, lovingly filmed in iconic Oxford settings – what next?
First and most obvious variation, perhaps: make the protagonist a woman instead. So to DI Hillary Greene, created by Faith Martin and sustained through a series now on its 21st volume. So good, in fact, that when she retired from the force, she had to be brought back to meet readerly demand. With a whole new department created specially for her, in cramped basement office quarters under Thames Valley’s brutalist 1970s HQ at Kidlington, on the city’s outskirts. So now she sallies forth from her nifty houseboat on the Oxford canal to work as a consultant to the force, investigating cold cases.
Honourable mention is due to DI Susan Holden, Peter Tickler’s creation from the Blood in Oxford series, who must uncover secrets of quintessentially gritty urban locations from the famous multicultural Cowley Road to nefarious practices at a care home of the kind tucked away in many a suburb. That particular episode was her comeback after compassionate leave following the violent death of her lover, pathologist Dr Karen Pickering.
Then there’s Zoë Boehm, who stars in the first set of novels by Mick Herron, newly anointed Diamond Dagger by the Crime Writers’ Association. Another Oxford detective, but a Private Investigator this time, throwing in a fresh variant in the form of a step away from the institutional setting.
So finally to Janna Rose, from my newly published Mind Over Murder (co-authored with Annabel McGoldrick). Like Annabel, she’s a psychotherapist who practises EMDR. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing is a powerful technique for treating unprocessed trauma, which attained zeitgeist status after Prince Harry used it following the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
Janna is thrust into the role of investigator when an old flame is found dead after leading an eco-protest over a car-friendly Oxford development, and a police inquiry stalls. In another sense, though, she plays detective all the time: figuring out, in her consulting room, what really motivates clients to behave and respond as they do.
Next Chapter published it as the first of a series, and the sequel is well underway. One of the corporates that turned it down (who shall remain nameless) said, in an emailed response: “You have an interesting premise. It’s a fast-paced read with a lot of twists and reveals, and Janna is a great heroine. However, it’s not quite a traditional police detective, since Janna isn’t a cop, but it also isn’t cosy enough to be marketed that way.”
They had us bang to rights, guv. The victim does not suddenly keel over at a vicar’s tea party. Instead, the themes of Mind Over Murder are dark and conspiratorial, taking us through such vexing contemporary issues as social media manipulation of public and political opinion, and the clampdown on public protest.
In search of a fresh angle on Oxford crime fiction, then, more power to agile, independent publishers. It seems they’re the ones with sufficient imagination to chisel out whatever further reserves remain to be mined from the rich central seam of the Morse tradition.
Jake Lynch is an Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, splitting his time between Australia and Oxford. He is the author of two Oxford-based mystery thrillers.
Before entering academia, Jake spent 20 years in journalism, working as a Political Correspondent for Sky News at Westminster and as the Sydney Correspondent for The Independent, before becoming an on-air presenter for BBC World TV News. His contributions to the field of Peace Journalism—through research, teaching, and training—earned him the 2017 Luxembourg Peace Prize, awarded by the Schengen Peace Foundation.
Beyond his professional work, Jake enjoys acting in his local pantomime and running a book group.
