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| “ | You're not listening to me. You're so kind to me. | „ |
| ~ Ms. Rawlinson to Morse after her imprisonment. |
Ruth Rawlinson is the secondary antagonist in Colin Dexter's 1979 Inspector Morse novel, Service of All the Dead. She was a church cleaner and the mistress of Harry Josephs, serving as an accomplice in his plan to murder Phillip Lawson. Later, she became a (former) love interest of Morse for a while.
She was portrayed by Angela Morant in Inspector Morse TV series.
Biography[]
Ruth Rawlinson was the church cleaner of St. Augustine at St. Oswalds, who was involve to a love affair with churchwarden Harry Josephs, before participating in his conspiracy alongside Rev. Lionel Lawson and others, to get rid of Phillip Lawson (Simon Lionel in TV series) so that she would gain money from Reverend Lawson's fortune, using it to take care of her mother, whose health was declining.
After the murder of Phillip, Ms. Rawlinson was amongst the accomplices who committed perjury, claiming that the dead man was indeed Harry Josephs. During Morse's investigation, Ms. Rawlinson became close to Morse and had budding romantic feeling to him, but was chained by Josephs, who was a control freak.
Later, after Morse revealed her role in the case, Ruth was arrested by the police. During the court, Ms. Rawlinson gave a statement to Lewis and explained her need for money, as well as her involvment in Rev. Lawson's crime to murder Josephs but did not confess the whole thing.
However, Morse torn up the statement and revealed the truth, that Ms. Rawlinson committed the perjury, with Josephs as the real mastermind, whilst the person who was murdered was in fact Philip Lawson. After that, Ruth confessed everything. She revealed that she fell in love with Josephs and sympathized with Rev. Lawson. The judge, whilst sympathizing with Ms. Rawlinson's motives, deemed her crimes was still dreadful, and thus she was sentenced 18 months in prison for perjury.
It was later revealed by Morse that Josephs never loved Ruth and would even plan to murder her next, immediately after killing his wife, Paul Morris and Peter Morris, but he was stopped by Morse and Lewis so that such thing wouldn't happen at all. After her release, Ruth was visited by Morse in her flat, and they started a romantic relationship.
Trivia[]
- In the TV series, the postscript of Morse visiting Ruth after her release and them becoming lovers was replaced with him visiting her in her cell after sentencing. The device of Morse telling the press he was on the verge of making an arrest, prompting the attack on Ruth, was removed.
- Lionel and Ms. Rawlinson are the only two accomplices of Harry Josephs that are not motivated by greed.
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 Villains
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Inspector Morse Accomplices Non-Culprits Lewis Endeavour Culprits Non-Culprits | ||