Inspector Ghote Books
It is just Inspector Ghote's luck to be landed with the case of the Perfect Murder at the start of his career with the Bombay Police. For this most baffling of crimes there is the cunning and important tycoon Lala Varde to contend with. And if this were not enough, Ghote finds himself having to investigate the mysertious theft of one rupee from the desk of yet another Very Important Person—the Minister of Police Affairs and the Arts. "If people would only behave in a simple, reasonable, logical way, " sighs the inspector as he struggles through the quagmires of incompentence and corruption to solve these curious crimes.
This was no ordinary murder, for the victim was Frank Masters, millionaire and philanthropist. The case was bound to attract much public attention. But Inspector Ghote finds that his demands for evidence are met with nothing but lies and evasions.
An American visitor to India meets death on the road from Bombay to Poona.
Inspector Ganesh Ghote comes to London! The Indian police inspector (pronounced Go-tay) is sent to attend an international conference on drug smuggling; and in cold, drizzling London he is faced with his first case outside India.It is a very odd case. The girl, Ranee, niece of relatives of Ghote who live in London, has vanished&;seduced, kidnapped, murdered, so her relatives allege, by the notorious pop singer Johnny Bull. Ghote is hounded by the relatives into spending his few leisure hours from the conference in trying to find Ranee&;known for her brilliance as The Peacock.
Inspector Ghote of India fails in his assignment to guard a very special flamingo and finds himself on the trail of a murderer
The Inspector finds himself in a small provincial town; his mandate is to investigate a death. 15 years earlier.
The assignment was routine: to bring a notorious confidence man, arrested in Calcutta, back to Bombay for trial. But Inspector Ghote devised a plan to make it almost a holiday - to relax on the Calcutta Mail as it surged across the breadth of the Indian subcontinent. But Ghote's fellow passengers soon prove anything but restful . . .
Some crooks have tried to snatch the plump son of a business tycoon, and have accidentally made off with his playmate instead. But they're not changing their plan: a payment is to be delivered to them or a small corpse is to be delivered to Inspector Ghote. But what kind of ransom can a mere tailor's boy demand? And, as something more unpleasant than just a ransom note arrives from the kidnappers, are the police helping keep the boy in one piece?
Insp. Ghote of the Bombay police has been relegated to antipickpocket patrol where he promptly gets himself into one of those fearful fixes which are equally the product of his faults and his virtues.
A grisly murder has plunged Bollywood, the film capital of India, into chaos. Ghote gets so caught up with giving an Academy Award-winning performance as a sleuth that the curtain almost comes down on his own life.
Sent to a remote part of India to find out who could benefit from Judge Asif's death, Ghote can get no cooperation from the judge until it becomes evident that the anonymous threats are coming from someone in the judge's household.
A maharajah is murdered during a house party in India in 1930, and a plump American widow, her curvaceous daughter, the maharajah's heir and aide, the British resident advisor, and a soft-metals king from the American West are among the suspects
What is Inspector Ghote to do? It is months now since he was sent to take command at the small hill-station of Vigatpore. But the events of one fateful night have put him in a terrible quandary. It was with almost no warning that his long time hero Tiger' Kelkar, now a top-ranking officer, arrived to make an inspection - and killed a subordinate in a moment of pre-monsoon anger. To his horror, Ghote found himself concealing the death to protect the man he reveres. Now he finds himself being accused at an Inquiry set up to elicit the truth-and is torn by a traumatic clash of loyalties. "First-class Keating" OBSERVER. "Unusual in subject, usual in excellence"THE TIMES "Beautifully sustained and artfully stacked with law and order ironies". THE GUARDIAN. "The denouement of the dilemma is a wry, sly twist that is as startling as any Christie surprise" LOS ANGELES TIMES.
Summoned from Bombay to the tiny hill station of Ootacamund, home of the exclusive Ooty Club, Inspector Ghote must determine who murdered a club servant on the very billiard table where snooker was invented
Treachery is in the Bombay air as Inspector Ghote tries to put a blackmailer away and instead ends up witnessing a shattering crime that leaves him town between his duties as a lawman and his own set of values. "What . . . Hillerman does for the Navaho nation . . . Keating does for the Indian subcontinent. . . ".--Publishers Weekly.
Under orders from New Delhi, Inspector Ghote is sent to look into the theft and sale of exam papers from one of the most deplorable outlying colleges of Bombay University. At first glance all seems straightforward. The chief suspect, Bala Chambhar, has attempted suicide and Principal Bembalkar has admitted leaving his office safe unlocked. But life is never easy for Ghote and he soon finds himself head-over-heels in the often farcical world of Indian college life with struggles on the Board of Trustees over who should run the college and student protests leading to kidnapping and violence.
Inspector Ghote is sent from Bombay to Banares to investigate the peculiar circumstances surrounding Mrs. Shoba Popatkar's murder - a beloved national figure, known throughout the sub-continent for her lifelong commitment to virtuous causes. He feels only too keenly the official pressure to come up with a simple solution. Can he manage to satisfy both his superiors and his own need to discover the whole truth? Certainly, there are frustrating obstacles blocking his path as he doggedly makes his way through the throngs of the city's narrow lanes seeking the killer, not the least of which are the uncooperative local police officials.
At the Mira Behn Institute for Medical Research someone is smuggling out a dangerous drug, made from the venom of poisonous snakes. Inspector Ghote's suspect is the snake-handler Chandra Chagoo, but Chagoo's now lying dead on the floor of the Reptile Room, a viper slithering across his back.
Inspector Ghote's wife has just inherited a big house and is determined that they both move from Bombay to Calcutta. But when the couple arrive to view the property, they find it in a state of terrible disrepair and inhabited by squatters. Ghote detects a whiff of corruption which he discovers extends all the way up the political ladder.
Officially excluded from the most baffling murder case to occur in Bombay for many years, Inspector Ghote has only one option - to track down the killer unofficially instead. All Bombay is buzzing with news of the murder of Anil Ajmani. It is certainly a baffling case, for the millionaire was found stabbed to death in his tightly secure mansion. Every inspector in the Crime Branch hopes to nail the killer. Including Inspector Ghote. Unfortunately, he is the only officer not assigned to the case. Instead he has been given the less glorious task of tracking down a cat burglar. Aided - or perhaps hampered - by his old friend Axel Svensson, Ghote races to uncover Yeshwant's true identity. And in doing so unexpectedly finds that he may be the one to solve the murder of Anil Ajmani after all...
From Gold and Cartier Diamond Dagger–Winner H. R. F. Keating, the long awaited prequel to the acclaimed series Newly promoted Inspector Ghote of the Bombay Police is thrilled to be granted casual leave until he takes up his post, as it allows him to spend time with his heavily pregnant wife, who is desperate to watch a showing of Hamlet at the cinema. Their plans are ruined, however, when Sir Rustom Engineer asks Ghote to investigate the suicide of his friend’s wife. Worried about his wife’s imminent delivery, Ghote nevertheless travels to the home of Mr. Dawkins, where he is unconvinced by the story of Iris Dawkins’s death. Especially when he recognizes the officer in charge, Darrani, who is well known for his closed mindedness. Ghote investigates further, with a Hamlet-esque awareness of how deceiving appearances can really be. The New York Times called Inspector Ghote “one of the great characters of the contemporary mystery novel” and H. R. F. Keating returns to his well-liked Indian detective with much energy and vision.
In his proud new position in the prestigious Bombay Police Crime Branch Inspector Ganesh Ghote sees his career finally take off with the prospect of only the most high profile murders to investigate. Unfortunately the Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr. Ramprasade Divekar has other ideas and chooses to keep Ghote busy with the interminable paperwork of Bandobast Duty. Waiting to be given his first case, Ghote doesn't expect to find it planted in his waste bin. Wrapped in newspaper, which features the face of a prominent politician and stuffed into an old shopping bag, there is stark evidence of a murder fitted to his capabilities. But ACP Divekar dismisses the murder as plainly altogether unsuitable for a Crime Branch investigation, ordering Ghote to dispose of such evidence. Feeling that no murder should go overlooked, Ghote makes a promise to himself, and later to his steadfast wife, Protima, to investigate on his own, possibly risking his entire police career. His enquiries take him all over sprawling Bombay as he hunts for a man who has stolen just such an old shopping bag. But then he is suddenly given that longed-for case, the murder of a young university researcher already inefficiently investigated by the local police. It may be only a small case, but can Ghote solve it and keep as well the promise he has made to himself?