Tricky Mr. Dexter is again a tad too tricky for his own good in this fourth case involving Inspector Morse. It begins beautifully--40 pages setting up the potentially explosive situations among people attached to Oxford's Church of St. Frideswide. Then, however, Dexter jumps forward in time--as moody Morse, on semi-vacation, starts looking into the casualties that have indeed ensued at St. Frideswide's: though the characters are fine, the atmosphere perfect, and Morse darkly intriguing, one can only concur when the local magistrate says: "Doesn't all this seem to you an extraordinarily complicated business, Inspector?" It is indeed, and only those partial to super-contrived crime puzzles will fully enjoy the benefits of Dexter's wry, cool, quintessentially British talents.