A friend of Morse’s, Anne Staveley, is found hanging in her home in the Jericho quarter of the town. The evidence points to suicide, but Morse has his own reasons for believing it to be murder.

Someone is selling the secrets of Oxford University’s examination-setting syndicate. Nicholas Quinn, a hard-of-hearing new member of the exam board is then found dead at his home, poisoned by cyanide, after he finding out something he shouldn’t when overhearing a conversation. During the investigation, Morse is repeatedly drawn to Monica Height, a woman who he fears may be mixed up in it all.

Harry Josephs, the church warden of a small parish church is murdered there during a service, and Morse is called in. He discovers that a tramp who was thought to be the vicar’s brother was seen in the vicinity, and has now disappeared. When Morse and Lewis come to the church to question the vicar, he throws himself off the tower. As the bodies start piling up and the chase is on, Lewis discovers that Morse doesn’t have a head for heights.

When a wealthy American tourist is found dead in her hotel, apparently from a heart attack, Morse suspects that it was not that simple. She was due to return a valuable artifact to an Oxford archaeological museum, and it is now missing. The most obvious suspect suddenly disappears, and then one of the tourist party’s lecturers turns up in the River Cherwell.

Valerie Craven, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from a wealthy family has been missing for six months, and was last seen leaving her private school, the Homewood School for Girls. Morse is convinced she has been murdered, but Lewis is less pessimistic. Their investigations reveal that there’s more going on at her school than meets the eye. But before Morse can unravel the mystery, the deputy headteacher, Cheryl Baines, is found dead at her home in suspicious circumstances.

The tranquil cloisters of Lonsdale College, Oxford are shattered when a Japanese student on a summer course is discovered brutally murdered in what appears to be a ritual killing. Morse realises that he has unwittingly provided all his murder suspects with a watertight alibi, as they were all at a dinner he was attending, and he suspects he has been set up. Investigations reveal that more than one of the college staff have reasons to be anti-Japanese, and that the drugs squad had been watching the man.

When Morse investigates the apparent murder of a young secretary, whose body is found in a pub car park, he uncovers a complex web of relationships, passion and corruption. The lies and unhappiness of the people Morse questions confirm his belief that the bachelor life is not so bad.

Morse and Lewis are sent to investigate the apparent burglary of some erotic paintings belonging to a local baronet, Sir Julius Hanbury, who also seems to have disappeared during the election of the new Master of Courtney College, for which he is a candidate. When Morse discovers his body, it at first looks like murder, but then, Dr. Russell, the new pathologist, suggests it may have been suicide. Soon after there is a real murder, but what is the connection with the first death?

A body is found in the canal and the only clue to its identity points to a connection with one of the university’s colleges. It happens that intense rivalry for one of the most prestigious posts in the university has led to murder. But which one of the highly respected contenders is the calculating killer?

Morse discovers that cricket is the last thing on the mind of the Clarets XI old boys’ team when their annual match is brought to an abrupt halt by the untimely death of one of their players. Morse was at school with many of the players.

When Morse had refused to give out his first name back in school, he was dubbed “Pagan” Morse (because he had no Christian name). His sobriquet is renewed throughout this episode.

When playboy architect Michael Gifford is found strangled in his car in bay 5B of the Westgate multi-storey car park, the only clues are his diary and the car-park ticket. The list of suspects grows and grows as Morse and Lewis uncover a love triangle involving the dead man, who had had a number of lovers, but became very possessive and threatening when they tried to break off their relationships. Meanwhile, Morse considers asking Dr. Russell out for a romantic evening.

Morse investigates the tangled web of evidence surrounding the mysterious death of an eminent environmentalist, killed just minutes before he was to give a controversial lecture at Oxford’s Beaufort College. He finds skeletons can be hidden in even the most respectable of academic families, as well as conflicts of interest between academic sponsors and the work of the college.

Called in to investigate the murder of Trevor Radford, the managing director, at the family-run Radford Brewery, Morse becomes immersed in the complex internal politics of the Radford family and the mystery surrounding a hostile take-over bid for the brewery by a conglomerate, Farmers of Banbury, run by Morse’s old friend George Linacre.

The apparently motiveless murder of two young women points to a psychotic killer. Morse’s speculations on what they might have in common leads him to a local garage owner, Jeremy Boynton, who knew them both, and who arouses his suspicions and dislike. Convinced that Boynton holds the key to the crime, Morse begins to hound him, despite having no firm evidence. Morse is also faced with the possible loss of his beloved red Mark II Jaguar.

Morse finds himself at the top of the suspect list when his lady friend, Beryl Newsome, is stabbed at a dress rehearsal for the local amateur dramatic society’s production of the Magic Flute. Then Lewis starts uncovering more incriminating evidence, and Morse becomes the target of direct attacks. Who is it that wants to get at Morse so badly?

The mysterious death of a former deputy police commissioner brings Morse into reluctant contact with an old rival, Chief Inspector Dawson. Morse and Lewis, in uneasy tandem with Dawson, spot a link with the unsolved murder of a young girl 18 years earlier. To find the latest killer they have to unravel the first case again.

Morse finds himself attracted to a female cleric when he is called upon to investigate the suspicious death of Victoria Hazlett, a woman deacon, while sitting an examination at Oxford. St Saviour’s College is about to appoint Oxford’s first ever female chaplain, and emotions are running high among the more conservative clerics. Nevertheless, Morse and Lewis find it hard to believe such feelings could lead to murder.

An artist, fun-loving drinker and raconteur, Harry Field seems like a man after Morse’s own heart. But when Morse and Lewis investigate his mysterious death, they discover that he was not such a lovable character. He had few original ideas and was a copious imitator of the style of other artists, but all his paintings seem to be of the same woman, and it is not his wife. He did a good trade in made-up family coats-of-arms with joke Latin mottos, but was he involved in more serious fakery?

When the chef at Lewis’s favorite Greek restaurant is found murdered, and a baby goes missing, Oxford’s Greek community closes ranks. Matters aren’t helped when Morse has a bad-tempered exchange with the shipping millionaire who owns the restaurant.

Lewis experiences culture shock when the search for an ex-supergrass takes them from Oxford to the Australian outback.

Morse investigates the apparent suicide of a terminally ill Oxford don and finds he has a very old and personal connection with the family. As the case develops, Lewis worries that Morse’s professionalism is being undermined.

A business tycoon’s wife and sons come under suspicion when he is found murdered in his country mansion. Morse clashes with a new chief superintendent and is targeted by the tabloid press. Meanwhile, bodies start piling up.

The strange death of an Englishwoman abroad takes Morse and Lewis to the beautiful city of Verona in northern Italy, famed for its open-air stagings of operas in its ancient amphitheater. Morse delights in being there and is entranced by the glamorous opera singer Nicole Burgess, but Lewis just wants to go home.

Morse and Lewis observe life up close in HMP Farnleigh, an open prison, when they investigate the affairs of three imprisoned fraudsters and one of them is murdered. Then an attempt is made on the life of a second.

Morse’s step-niece commits suicide, and he takes compassionate leave. He starts to research her past to find the reason for it running headlong into the the generation gap. His investigation into her death leads him through an alien world of teenage hedonism, house parties, raves and designer drugs.

The founder of a private hospital is found murdered in his car. Suspicion falls on a rich ex-bookmaker whose daughter developed severe brain damage during an operation at the hospital.

Morse and Lewis are drawn into the disturbing world of devil worship when they join the hunt for a violent rapist who has escaped from prison.

An unpleasant business tycoon and a world-famous opera singer are invited to receive honorary degrees by Oxford University, but the ceremony is halted when a sniper opens fire on the procession, seriously wounding the singer. Was she really the intended target?

When a multiple-murder suspect is killed while on remand, the mystery of a missing fifth woman remains unsolved. In her effects was a postcard of a Pre-Raphaelite painting, the background of which was set in some local woods. Morse is assigned to the case when what appears to be her body is discovered in those woods.

McClure, a retired university professor, is found stabbed to death. Morse and Lewis suspect the former custodian of McClure’s room, Ted Brooks, who left his job abruptly after one of McClure’s students committed suicide. The case heats up when Morse discovers that McClure, the suicidal student, and the student’s roommate, Ashley Davies, were all in love with the same woman—who also happens to be Brooks’s daughter. Morse and Lewis add to their long list of suspects when they begin to question the unusually close relationship between Ted Brooks’ wife Brenda and the woman for whom she cleans house, schoolteacher Julia Stevens. Julia seems to be protecting Brenda from her husband’s abusive treatment—but when Ted is found dead, it is suspected she may be protecting an altogether different kind of secret.

A young woman is fatally shot through her kitchen window at point blank range. With only a valentine from an unsigned lover to go on, Morse talks to the neighbors in the adjoining homes, including Geoffrey Owens, an aggressive journalist, and Adele Cecil, a music teacher with whom Morse is immediately taken—and secretly hopes is innocent. At precisely the same hour the next morning, Geoffrey Owens is also shot and killed. Morse and Lewis discover that the two murder victims are connected to a discretely, but bitterly fought competition taking place at Oxford’s Lonsdale College. The current Master of Lonsdale, the malicious Sir Clixby Bream, is retiring, and two professors, Denis Cornford and Julian Storrs, are vying for the post, with their wives doing what they can to influence the election behind the scenes.

This is the episode in which Morse reluctantly admits his first name to Adele Cecil, and Sergeant Lewis, explaining his Quaker mother’s penchant for making names of abstract nouns like Hope and Faith, and his father’s worship of Captain James Cook whose ship, with which he rounded Cape Horn, discovered and named the Society Islands, was called The Endeavour. Lewis’ immediate comment was, “You poor sod!”

Morse is laid up in hospital, and Lewis is away on an inspector training course. To pass the time, Morse reads a book by American criminal expert Dr. Millie Van Buren on the Oxford canal murder of 1859. In this case, the corpse of a young woman, Joanna Franks, was found floating in the canal, the apparent victim of four roughneck boatmen who were transporting her to London. The subsequent trial of three of the men resulted in the hanging of two. Morse becomes convinced that the wrong men were convicted, and from his hospital bed, enlists the help of the Thames Valley Police Department’s newest recruit, Adrian Kershaw. They dust off the physical evidence from the crime, stored in a nearby archive, and subject it to some very modern forensics tests. The results lead Morse to unearth a clever, duplicitous plot, the key to which lies in an abandoned grave in Ireland, and which would have spelled quite a different fate for the men who hanged in 1863.

The year-long investigation into the murder of Yvonne Harrison in a quiet Cotswold village is sparked to life again with the promise of new evidence. But though Chief Inspector Morse is due back on full duties, what exactly is the state of his health? And how will he react to Lewis leading the revitalised investigation?