It's the Sergeant Who's the Star
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Colin Dexter was born in 1930 and, over the course of his writing career, has won CWA Gold Dagger and Silver Dagger awards. "Last Seen Wearing" was first published in 1976 and is the second book to feature the famous Inspector Morse.
"Last Seen Wearing" sees Morse and his sidekick, Lewis, assigned to a missing persons case. Just over two years previously, Valerie Taylor - a seventeen year old pupil at a local comprehensive school, had disappeared. The case had been investigated by one of Morse's colleagues, Chief Inspector Ainley, but was never closed. Morse has now inherited the case following Ainley's death in a car accident. Although technically a "cold case", it was one that Ainley had never stopped investigating - albeit unofficially and in his own time, in the latter stages. Ainley was returning from London when he had his car accident - Morse believes he discovered something important there.
The day she disappeared, Valerie had come home for her lunch - although she left to return to school for her afternoon lessons, it seems she never arrived there. However, a letter has now arrived home - apparently from Valerie, saying she's fine but doesn't want to be found. According to the postmark, it was posted in London the day after Ainley's death. Morse, for no clear reason, decides that Valerie is actually dead and the letter is a forgery.
Since Valerie disappeared on the way back to school, Morse and Lewis naturally look into her school-life. Three staff-members, as it turns out, crop up regularly in the investigation. One is the school's headmaster - who had only been appointed to the position three years previously. (From the book's prologue, there's a suspicion he may have had a quick roll in the hay with Valerie on the day of his interview. Naturally, he wouldn't have known she was one of his prospective pupils at the time). Phillipson is still relatively young - he's only in his mid-thirties and is married with two young children. The school's vice-principal, on the other hand, is a single man in his fifties called Baines. He'd been passed over by the school's Board of Governors for the headmaster's position, and it's clear that he and Phillipson don't get on well together. The final staff member is David Acum, who had only taught in the school for one year - leaving shortly after Valerie had disappeared to take up a teaching position in Wales. Acum had taken Valerie's last class before she went missing.
While it's a better book that "Last Bus to Woodstock" - the first in the Morse series - there are still plenty of flaws in "Last Seen Wearing". Despite working on what was officially a missing persons case, it seemed strange that Morse had no clear photo of Valerie's face - the clearest shot mentioned appeared alongside a newspaper article. I was a little puzzled how Morse was supposed to recognise Valerie if he found her. I also found it strange that Morse didn't spend more time talking to Valerie's school-friends - only one of them, an ex-boyfriend, is even mentioned. Later on, when a murder is actually committed, Morse removes the weapon from the corpse and tosses it aside - taking no interest in fingerprints or forensics. (At this point, I was wondering how he still had a job). Dexter's style of writing didn't do much for me either - "I wish we could be naughty together, don't you ?" and "Watch out you miserable sinner, whoever you are, who did poor Valerie in !" are just a couple of samples. Largely an easy read, though it's no classic.
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Another good read from Colin Dexter
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Another good read from Colin Dexter. I really enjoyed LAST SEEN WEARING. The missing girl in the shape of the character Valerie Taylor had been missing for two years, three months and two days and had gone missing on her way back to school.
I liked the rapport between Morse and Lewis (Lewis in my mind as I read the book) had really got more confidence when talking to Morse and even when Lewis had to go to bed with the flu, he really thought about the case and gave Morse plenty to think about when he visited him.
I don't want to spoil it for readers who haven't read the book but what I can tell you is that the characters Baines and Phillipson were very dark and Colin Dexter invented twists and turns that were very surprising. This is what made the novel interesting for me to read and I was surprised by Mrs.Taylor's actions (Valerie's mother) and the big surprise was at the end but you'll have to read the book as I don't want to spoil it for anybody.
Congratulations to Pan (Colin Dexter's publishers) for the great covers) and to Colin himself for penning another great novel. Well done!
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