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5.0étoiles sur 5
An extraordinary detective novel, Juil 30 2000
I was a bit wary about starting this novel--I didn't care for THE WENCH IS DEAD or THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS (found them horribly dull, actually)--but I decided to give it a try. It was well worth the effort; of all the Dexter mysteries I've read, THE DAUGHTERS OF CAIN is easily the best.A former Oxford professor, Dr. Felix McClure, is found stabbed to death in his flat, and as usual, Inspector Morse and his faithful Watson, Sergeant Lewis, are assigned the case. The two discover a suspicious connection between McClure and a ne'er-do-well named Ted Brooks, who himself vanishes suddenly. As you'd expect from the title, the cast of suspects is almost exclusively female, and Dexter does a fantastic job of probing the passions--both love and hatred--that drive women to murder. Interestingly enough, the most perplexing question is not so much whodunit as howdunit, and the solution that Dexter provides is very tricky, and very clever. You'd be hard-pressed, though, to find a writer plays more fairly with clues; all the information necessary to deduce the solution is there, albeit hidden in plain sight. But this novel entertains on many levels, plot being the least of them. With Morse at his grumpy, endearingly brilliant best, and Lewis acting once again as the perfect comic foil, the journey is as much fun as the destination. The story is well-paced, and all the characters are so thoroughly engaging that even the less action-packed segments (which basically means the whole book--this is a British mystery, after all) are fascinating. Finally, no other writer in the English language writes quite like Colin Dexter, whose impeccably idiosyncratic prose is a joy to read. The dialogue is frequently hilarious, the social observations are sharp but subtle, and the use of language (words like "dolichocephalic" pop up more than once) is marvelously quirky. In all, a delightfully sophisticated, immensely satisfying piece of writing.
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