The Wench is Dead (Inspector Morse Mysteries, Band 8)

That night he dreamed in Technicolor. He saw the ochre-skinned, scantily clad siren in her black, arrowed stockings. And in Morse's muddled computer of a mind, that siren took the name of one Joanna Franks . . .

The body of Joanna Franks was found at Duke's Cut on the Oxford Canal at about 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday 22 June 1859.

At around 10.15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in 1989, the body of Chief Inspector Morse - though very much alive - was removed to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Treatment for a perforated ulcer was later pronounced successful.

As Morse begins his recovery, he comes across an account of the investigation and trial that followed Joanna Franks' death, and soon becomes convinced that the two men hanged for her murder were innocent . . .

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger award for Best Crime Novel of the Year

'Dexterously ingenious' Guardian

'Morse solves a 130-year-old mystery in delightful style' Mail on Sunday