The Wench Is Dead

⚖The case for it

Inspector Morse, bedridden in hospital, investigates a Victorian canal murder from old newspaper clippings. Pure armchair detection of a 130-year-old case. Won the Gold Dagger. Morse's crosswords, Wagner, Oxford ale, and crankiness made him the most beloved British series detective after Poirot.

— the canon

✕The case against

Dexter lifted the premise from Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time: bedridden detective solves a historical case from documents. Morse without the Oxford legwork is Morse at half power, and a murder from 1859 carries no stakes anyone living can feel. Ingenious, short, and slight; this is a crossword with a corpse in it.

— the honest librarian