The Secret of Annexe 3
Encyclopedia
The Secret of Annexe 3 is a crime
novel
by Colin Dexter
, the seventh novel in Inspector Morse
series.
The guests of Haworth Hotel rose late, after New Year's Eve. But there was one exception, the guest in Annexe 3 missed New Year's Eve completely. He was still in his room, lying dead on the blood-soaked bed. Inspector Morse began investigating each of the guests. Was Mrs. Palmer really a faithful wife? Just who exactly were the Ballards? And, how had the hotel's booking confirmation been delivered to a nonexistent address?
As the novel begins, Margaret Bowman of Charlbury Drive Chipping Norton is off to a funeral. Her husband, left alone, finds an angry letter, apparently from a lover, in his wife’s handbag.
After the murder, Inspector Morse, with the help of the pretty receptionist, Miss Sarah Jonstone, examines the letters and phone messages booking the various rooms at the hotel. Discovering the non-existent address, he deduces that a postman must be involved.
Thomas Bowman, the postman, turns out to be the corpse, and his wife and her lover the instigators of the murder. Winston Grant, a black musician, was hired to do the deed.
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Colin Dexter
Colin Dexter
Norman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as a television series from 1987 to 2000.-Early life and career:...
, the seventh novel in Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse is a fictional character in the eponymous series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33-episode 1987–2000 television adaptation of the same name, in which the character was portrayed by John Thaw. Morse is a senior CID officer with the Thames Valley...
series.
The guests of Haworth Hotel rose late, after New Year's Eve. But there was one exception, the guest in Annexe 3 missed New Year's Eve completely. He was still in his room, lying dead on the blood-soaked bed. Inspector Morse began investigating each of the guests. Was Mrs. Palmer really a faithful wife? Just who exactly were the Ballards? And, how had the hotel's booking confirmation been delivered to a nonexistent address?
As the novel begins, Margaret Bowman of Charlbury Drive Chipping Norton is off to a funeral. Her husband, left alone, finds an angry letter, apparently from a lover, in his wife’s handbag.
After the murder, Inspector Morse, with the help of the pretty receptionist, Miss Sarah Jonstone, examines the letters and phone messages booking the various rooms at the hotel. Discovering the non-existent address, he deduces that a postman must be involved.
Thomas Bowman, the postman, turns out to be the corpse, and his wife and her lover the instigators of the murder. Winston Grant, a black musician, was hired to do the deed.
Publication history
- 1986, London: Macmillan ISBN 0333431391, Pub date October 1986, Hardback
- 1987, New York: St. Martin's Press ISBN 0312010893, Pub date November 1987, Hardback
Sources, references, external links
- Bishop, David, The Complete Inspector Morse: From the Original Novels to the TV Series London: Reynolds & Hearn (2006) ISBN 1905287135
- Bird, Christopher, The World of Inspector Morse: A Complete A-Z Reference for the Morse Enthusiast Foreword by Colin Dexter, London: Boxtree (1998) ISBN 0752221175