| The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn | |
| Author: | Colin Dexter |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Inspector Morse series, #3 |
| Genre: | crime novel |
| Publisher: | Macmillan |
| Pub Date: | 5 May 1977 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages: | 254 |
| Isbn: | 0-333-21626-1 |
| Oclc: | 6080737 |
| Preceded By: | Last Seen Wearing |
| Followed By: | Service of All the Dead |
The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn is a crime novel by Colin Dexter, the third novel in Inspector Morse series.
The Oxford Foreign Examinations Syndicate runs school exams in the Persian Gulf and other places with a British connection. The Secretary Dr Bartlett and Mr Roope, a chemistry don and a member of the committee, disagree about the appointment of a new member of staff. Roope gets his way and Nicholas Quinn, a deaf man who lipreads, gets the job.
When Quinn is found murdered in his maisonette, all the staff are under suspicion. There is Bartlett, his deputy Ogleby and the attractive Monica Height, who has liaisons with some of the others - especially young Donald Martin. Strangely, nearly all of them, including Quinn, appear to have tickets for The Nymphomaniac at Studio 2 in Walton Street on the afternoon of the murder. When later Ogleby is himself found murdered, a neat drawing of Quinn’s ticket is found in his diary.
Morse tries to deduce which of the others is the murderer but keeps getting it wrong. An intrigue involving wealthy Arabs and prior knowledge of exam papers is clearly the cause, and Quinn had found out about it and paid for it with his life.
The cast included John Thaw as Inspector Endeavour Morse, Kevin Whately as Sergeant Robert Lewis, Barbara Flynn as Monica Height, Michael Gough as Philip Ogleby, Clive Swift as Dr Bartlett, Anthony Smee as Dr Roope, Roger Lloyd-Pack as Donald Martin, Lyndam Gregory as Sergeant Dixon, Phil Nice as Nicholas Quinn.