Dexter, Colin (Norman Colin Dexter), 1930–2017, English mystery novelist, b. Stamford, Lincolnshire. He as a classics teacher in secondary schools until deafness forced him to find a new career; he then worked for Oxford's secondary school examinations department (1966–88). He published his first mystery novel, Last Bus to Woodstock, in 1972; it featured the curmudgeonly, poetry- and music-loving Chief Inspector Morse and used Oxford as its setting. It was followed by 12 more Morse books and a popular British television series, Inspector Morse (1987–2000), and two television spinoffs. Morse dies in the final novel of the series, Remorseful Day (1999). The Wench is Dead (1989) and The Way through the Woods (1992) won Golden Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association of Britain; Dexter also received the group's lifetime achievement award (1997).
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