As The Jewel That Was Ours opens, we meet three hosts who are preparing to welcome a group of American tourists to Oxford. Sheila Williams is a liaison and event organizer for the university. Dr. Theodore Kemp is the philandering curator of the Ashmolean Museum who, as the novel begins, abruptly breaks off his relationship with Sheila, who’s been his mistress for a few months. John Ashendon is the tour’s leader. With everything in readiness, the busload of tourists arrives on schedule, and the visitors are settled into the elegant Randolph Hotel. Among the tourists are Eddie Stratton and his wife, Laura, Phil Aldrich, Janet Roscoe, Howard and Shirley Brown, and Sam and Vera Kronquist. The high point of the group’s tour of Oxford is to be Laura Stratton’s presentation of the Wolvercote Tongue, part of a jeweled Saxon belt buckle, to the Ashmolean. Late in the afternoon of the group’s arrival, Laura Stratton suddenly dies of a heart attack while she’s in her bathtub, and her handbag, in which she’s been keeping the Wolvercote Tongue, is stolen. Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis are called in to look into the theft.
At first, Morse and Lewis treat this investigation as a routine incident. Statements are taken from all of the tourists and their hosts, and the detectives begin to sift through what’s been said. Everything changes the next afternoon, though, when Theodore Kemp is found murdered. Morse suspects that Kemp’s murder is connected with the theft of the Wolvercote Tongue, so he and Lewis investigate the cases simultaneously. The more that Morse and Lewis find out about Kemp, the more they realize that there’s more behind the theft than they thought, and that more than one person had a good motive to murder Theodore Kemp. Kemp’s wife, Marion, has two motives; first, he’s been unfaithful to her multiple times. Also, Kemp was responsible for a car accident in which a young woman was killed, and Marion left with a permanent spine injury that confined her to a wheelchair. Kemp’s colleague, Cedric Downes, is also a major suspect; his wife, Lucy, has been having affair with Kemp. In fact, it’s to be with Lucy that Kemp broke off his relationship with Sheila Williams. For just that reason, Sheila herself is also a suspect. And then there are the members of the tour group, nearly all of whom are hiding secrets.
Morse and Lewis slowly unravel the tissue of lies, deceptions and faked alibis and finally find out the real truth about the Wolvercote Tongue and about the murder of Theo Kemp. It turns out that practically everyone involved in the murder knows more than she or he says, and nearly everyone is hiding something. We also find that Kemp’s death has its roots in a past incident that comes back to haunt him. What’s even more interesting is the connection between that past (and Kemp’s murder) and the theft of the jewel.
Like a jigsaw puzzle, the plot of The Jewel That Was Ours is intellectually fascinating and as such, it’s interesting to see how Morse and Lewis solve it. The relationship that’s finally discovered between Kemp’s murder and the jewel theft is creative and not too unbelievable, and the pacing of the story keeps the reader’s interest from the beginning. But there are several other elements of this story that are even more compelling.
As The Jewel That Was Ours opens, we meet three hosts who are preparing to welcome a group of American tourists to Oxford. Sheila Williams is a liaison and event organizer for the university. Dr. Theodore Kemp is the philandering curator of the Ashmolean Museum who, as the novel begins, abruptly breaks off his relationship with Sheila, who’s been his mistress for a few months. John Ashendon is the tour’s leader. With everything in readiness, the busload of tourists arrives on schedule, and the visitors are settled into the elegant Randolph Hotel. Among the tourists are Eddie Stratton and his wife, Laura, Phil Aldrich, Janet Roscoe, Howard and Shirley Brown, and Sam and Vera Kronquist. The high point of the group’s tour of Oxford is to be Laura Stratton’s presentation of the Wolvercote Tongue, part of a jeweled Saxon belt buckle, to the Ashmolean. Late in the afternoon of the group’s arrival, Laura Stratton suddenly dies of a heart attack while she’s in her bathtub, and her handbag, in which she’s been keeping the Wolvercote Tongue, is stolen. Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis are called in to look into the theft.
At first, Morse and Lewis treat this investigation as a routine incident. Statements are taken from all of the tourists and their hosts, and the detectives begin to sift through what’s been said. Everything changes the next afternoon, though, when Theodore Kemp is found murdered. Morse suspects that Kemp’s murder is connected with the theft of the Wolvercote Tongue, so he and Lewis investigate the cases simultaneously. The more that Morse and Lewis find out about Kemp, the more they realize that there’s more behind the theft than they thought, and that more than one person had a good motive to murder Theodore Kemp. Kemp’s wife, Marion, has two motives; first, he’s been unfaithful to her multiple times. Also, Kemp was responsible for a car accident in which a young woman was killed, and Marion left with a permanent spine injury that confined her to a wheelchair. Kemp’s colleague, Cedric Downes, is also a major suspect; his wife, Lucy, has been having affair with Kemp. In fact, it’s to be with Lucy that Kemp broke off his relationship with Sheila Williams. For just that reason, Sheila herself is also a suspect. And then there are the members of the tour group, nearly all of whom are hiding secrets.
Morse and Lewis slowly unravel the tissue of lies, deceptions and faked alibis and finally find out the real truth about the Wolvercote Tongue and about the murder of Theo Kemp. It turns out that practically everyone involved in the murder knows more than she or he says, and nearly everyone is hiding something. We also find that Kemp’s death has its roots in a past incident that comes back to haunt him. What’s even more interesting is the connection between that past (and Kemp’s murder) and the theft of the jewel.
Like a jigsaw puzzle, the plot of The Jewel That Was Ours is intellectually fascinating and as such, it’s interesting to see how Morse and Lewis solve it. The relationship that’s finally discovered between Kemp’s murder and the jewel theft is creative and not too unbelievable, and the pacing of the story keeps the reader’s interest from the beginning. But there are several other elements of this story that are even more compelling.
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