Stu - re Jurassic Park. I quite liked both, for once in a way. The book's build-up exposition I found rather ingenious iirc, tho some time since I read it.

Will - Oddly enough, Colin Dexter was actually at Cambridge -- we overlapped by one year, at the same college as it happens (his last year was my first), but I don't recall ever actually meeting him. He later worked for many years in Oxford for the Exam Delegacy, so presumably set Morse there as he would by then have known that city better, and more immediately, than he did Cambridge.

& Musket, the books did come first. Can't say I ever greatly liked either them or the tv series -- always preferred Frost on tv. But quite enjoy the two spinoffs, Lewis & Endeavour.

Would point out that tv adaptations, esp series like Morse or serials like Brideshead, tho clearly a related topic, are not entirely germane to the thread. As pointed out above, the considerations are different with regard to such factors as necessary compression of plot or characters.

~M~