Colin Dexter, the unassuming British writer who created curmudgeonly, music-loving Oxford detective Inspector Morse, has died aged 86. Macmillan publisher Jeremy Trevathan said Dexter "represented the absolute epitome of British crime writing." Crime writer Ian Rankin tweeted that Dexter was "a gentle man with a steel mind; and the creator of such an iconic character." Born in 1930 in Stamford, central England, Dexter studied classics at Cambridge University and became a teacher, examiner and textbook author before turning to fiction. He began writing a detective novel to help pass the time during a wet vacation in Wales.

Source: CBC News March 23, 2017 02:03 UTC