The Remorseful Day


The Remorseful Day is a crime novel by Colin Dexter, the last novel in the Inspector Morse series.

Title

The title derives from a line in the poem "XVI – ", from More Poems, by A. E. Housman, a favourite poet of Dexter and Morse:

Plot

Morse tries to solve the unsolved murder of Yvonne Harrison, as his health deteriorates.
Harrison, a nurse, has inspired romantic attachment in Morse during an earlier illness, and he has written to her about it. She is a sharer of her favours; recipients, including her daughter's lover, are serially suspect.
His superintendent has found Morse's letter among crime-scene evidence but has sequestered it.
Morse dies of acute myocardial infarction; his last words are "Thank Lewis for me."
Wagner's Parsifal accompanies the final scene.

Publication history