Although the "New Wave" of British detective fiction began early in the 1960s--in which a group of young writers brought the world of the fictional mystery closer to the world of sociological reality, and the literary structure of their novels closer to the narrational techniques of post-World War II fiction--Colin Dexter arrived somewhat late on the scene, with Last Bus to Wood-stock (1975). Nor has he been as prolific as his immediate predecessors, Ruth Rendell, P. D. James, Nicolas Freeling, and Peter Lovesey. The seven novels published between 1975 and 1986 are carefully crafted, of uniform length (the 250 pages or so quite standard for "mature" examples of the genre), and consistent in style, tone, atmosphere, and intellectual level. If not quite as successful or accomplished as those four forerunners, Dexter is surely, as Dylan Thomas once classified himself, the best of the second rank.

Norman Colin Dexter was born on 29 September...