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.

Anthony Boucher "...the color and suspense sequences are fine—especially a grand siege in a pornographically decorated temple." — New York Times Book Review

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 embarks on one of his strangest cases when he is ordered to prevent a murder - the killing of a precious flamingo in the Bombay zoo. And then there is the racehorse fancied to win the local Derby, which gets replaced by a donkey... Ghote finds things going disastrously as bit by bit he unearths the traces of a monstrous practical joker. But then the fun stops - and Inspector Ghote has a more serious murder on his hands.

In a small, provincial town in the heart of India, a politician's wife has done her husband's career a great service, by dying under suspicious circumstances. That the corpse and the trail have been cold for fifteen years hasn't saved Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID from being sent to investigate. But what chance does he have when his chief suspect is so powerful, when the whole district is against him, and when a holy man is fasting to the death to protest his prying? But still the good inspector dutifully goes, carrying just the honour of his police force and a box of double-sized eggs . . .

One of Britain's finest crime fiction authors, Keating has written more than twenty Inspector Ghote mysteries. Here, Ghote is sent to Calcutta to escort a master criminal back to Bombay. He takes the train, hoping to make the journey into a mini-vacation. Fate conspires, however, and an odd assortment of travelers turns the trip into something unexpected. Sam Dastor is masterful. As the anxious Ghote, he diligently uncovers the truth. Dastor's believable accents, from Bengali to Madrasi to American, act as instant photographs of each mysterious character. As the plot picks up steam, Dastor brings frustration, humor, and thrills to this trip across India and back. Combine the incisive wit of H.R.F. Keating and a bravura performance by Sam Dastor, and you have a memorable listening experience. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Ganesh Ghote, an inspector with the Bombay Police Department, investigates the kidnapping of a poor child who was mistaken for the son of a wealthy tycoon.

Inspector Ghote is in trouble, worse trouble than ever before. When this adventure begins, he has already been relegated to the anti-pickpocket patrol, where he promptly gets himself into a fearful fix. Before long comes a topsy-turvy transfer to the Bats, as the specially selected officers of the Black-money and Allied Transactions Squad proudly call themselves. There Ghote is in worse straits, under compulsion to suspect every move and every word of his new super-efficient colleagues; he is also plagued by black thoughts about his loved ones at home.

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 princely state in India, 1930, under the British Raj. To Bhopore and its opulent Summer Palace comes a handful of Western visitors to meet the outrageous Maharajah and his entourage. There they met the Maharajah's heir, the sensual Porgy, and his English chorus-girl mistress. They meet the enigmatic chief minister—and the aloof British Resident, with his dignified little nine-year-old son. And before long they also meet sudden death....Various people in the Palace become suspects, and an imperturbable District Superintendent of Police is called in. But who will he find guilty of the murder of the Maharajah?

Inspector Ghote meets California. Ghote has been sent across the world by a Sindhi businessman to remove his daughter from a Californian ashram retreat. This classical ‘locked-room mystery’ provokes teasing question after teasing question about two very different societies and two seemingly opposed attitudes to life. And he has to deal with an American Private Eye of appalling brashness as well as a swami who is part miracle-worker, part charlatan. Not surprising that Len Deighton wrote to the author: ‘Wonderful! I’ve always said I would follow Ghote to the end of the earth and here he is in California : what a truly inspired confrontation.’

When Inspector Ghote is asked to escort an ageing British film hero round Bombay's notorious red-light district, at first he is just embarrassed. But then he is confronted with a tricky problem - murder. And the suspect is none other than the highly respectable Sheriff of Bombay, ex-Rajah and former captain of the Indian cricket team. How can a mere policeman cope with all that?

A.D.I.G. (Additional Deputy Inspector-General) ”Tiger” Kelkar has gone to Vigatpore, outside Bombay, to check on Inspector Ghote’s temporary work there. In a fit of righteous temper, Kelkar throws an inkpot at a foolish sergeant, killing him. Ghote, horrified that the much-admired Kelkar’s career could end with such an accident, helps dispose of the body. A year later, however, at the start of the next monsoon, the victim’s family gets the case reopened. Kelkar kills himself, and Ghote is the subject of an official inquiry. Keating traces Ghote’s anguished vacillation as he weighs the value of the truth against that of his own career.

This brief, entertaining novel, the 17th featuring Bombay’s Inspector Ghote, finds the dauntless detective summoned to the hill station of Ootacamund (”Ooty”) in South India, where he must locate a ”diabolically ingenious murderer.” A former ambassador, Surinder Mehta, calls upon Ghote to probe the death of Pichu, billiards marker at the genteel Ooty Club, gathering place for well-to-do Indians and English. Pichu had been found sprawled in the middle of the billiard table, stabbed in the heart; the murder weapon is missing, as are many of the club’s silver trophies. Aspiring ”Great Detective” Ghote puzzles over this troublesome case with Mehta, an aging crime novel buff who doggedly defends his theory that Pichu’s slaying occurred because he was blackmailing some frequenter of the club. As Ghote stalks a motley group of suspects, he despairs of solving the homicide until the culprit’s identity comes to him in a most unlikely fashion. Admirers of Keating’s light, diverting mysteries will not be disappointed. – Publisher’s Weekly

Book by Keating H R F

The iciest sin is blackmail, and that chilling crime is at the heart of this unusual mystery, featuring Bombay police detective, Inspector Ghote. As he investigates, Ghote himself becomes both a blackmailer and blackmail victim. Narrator Sam Dastor does an excellent job of bringing to life a colorful cast of characters, including the wickedly intriguing blackmailer, Dolly Daruwala. The Indian accents Dastor adopts sound very believable to western ears. His polished delivery does much to make this an engrossing tape and to build a following for the dogged, introspective detective, Inspector Ghote. D.L.G. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

A collection of stories

Investigating an apparent open-and-shut case on Kanpur campus at Bombay University, where students were able to purchase exam scores and degrees, Inspector Ghote encounters a bigger web of deceit than he anticipated

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.

Est-ce l'heure de la retraite pour l'inspecteur Ghote ? Protima, son épouse, qui vient d'hériter d'une maison à Calcutta est bien décidée à ce que tous deux quittent Bombay. Mais lorsque le couple se rend à Calcutta pour visiter les lieux, ils découvrent une propriété terriblement délabrée et occupée par des squatteurs. Ghote détecte un relent de corruption et est résolu à en trouver l'origine.

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 heavily guarded and tightly secured mansion. Every inspector in the Crime Branch hopes to be the one to nail the killer and that includes Inspector Ganesh Ghote. Unfortunately, he is not assigned to the case. Instead, he has been given the less glorious task of tracking down a cat burglar, nicknamed Yeshwant, who has been scaling apartment buildings in the dead of night to steal valuable pieces of jewelry. Aided-or perhaps hampered-by his old friend Axel Svensson, seeking Indian warmth from his troubles in winter-cold Sweden, Ghote fights to uncover Yeshwant's true identity. And in so doing, unexpectedly finds that he may be the one to solve the murder of Anil Ajmani after all.

Newly-promoted Inspector Ghote 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, since Sir Rustom Engineer requires 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' death. Especially when he recognises the officer in charge, Darrani, well-known for his close-mindedness. Ghote is determined to investigate further, with a Hamlet-esque awareness of how deceiving appearances can really be...

Shy, self-questioning Inspector Ghote, ‘one of the great creations of detective fiction’ (Alexander McCall Smith), faces a crisis of conscience when he is asked to ignore the murder of an unimportant colleague in this classic mystery – with a brand-new introduction by bestselling author Vaseem Khan. Newly-promoted Inspector Ganesh Ghote is not having a good morning. His office is too hot, his assistant Bikram is late for work and he can’t concentrate on his interminable paperwork, distracted by an insistent, unpleasant smell. Ghote’s day does not improve when he discovers its horrible Bikram’s severed head, wrapped in newspaper and stuffed in his office rubbish bin. Who would want to kill a lowly peon? And why would they plant the evidence in the heart of the Bombay Police Crime Branch? Ghote is already planning where to start his investigations when he’s brought up his new boss, the forbidding Assistant Commissioner Divekar, thinks the crime altogether unsuitable for their department, and orders him to quietly dispose of the body . . . A Small Case for Inspector Ghote?, H. R. F. Keating’s last novel, takes readers on a journey back to Ghote’s first official case, giving fans and new readers alike an intimate peek into the thoughts and feelings of one of detective fiction’s most human and engaging creations.