Modern Classics the Perfect Murder First Inspector Ghote Mystery (Penguin Modern Classics)

I found this book to be a rendition of the old Keystone cops gag yet done in a novel and set in India. The scenes all had a sameness to them in terms of the humor - which was basically the same joke over and over. The conversations just kept going in circles as frustration mounts atop frustration... But I also found it to be a bit insulting. At first I was intrigued by a Englishman's attempt to write characters and scenery of a country he has never even visited before. After I read the book I was a bit appalled that he would portray Indians and India with such comic disproportion - especially considering India was a former colonial vassal state of England. I don't often care about political correctness, but this seems a bit much by any measure.

Very disappointed. I wanted to like this book and just couldn't share in the joke.

The Inspector Ghote Mysteries are a series of gentle stories featuring a long-suffering Police Inspector in post-colonial Bombay. The two dozen books making up the series originally appeared over a span of some 45 years from 1964 onwards. These stories have had a large but quiet following and are generally regarded by the cognoscente as little treasures, largely unknown and unsung. It is good to see the whole series now being reissued by Penguin Modern Classic, although only in dribs and drabs, it seems, and not in order (and in any case now posthumously, author H R F "Harry" Keating having passed away in March 2011).

"The Perfect Murder" is the opening book of the series and is a charming invocation of post-colonial times in India, with its chaotic and Quixotic mix of imperial bureaucratic procedures, desperate independence and determination to modernise weighed down by traditional values and behaviours. Keating handles the mix expertly, conjuring a fully credible image of a foreign land but not one that is so alien as to have nothing to which the reader can relate. As it happens, Keating's India is entirely of his own imagining but one that is entirely credible and eminently loveable.

Stylistically this series of books has much in common with Alexander McCall Smith's "[[ASIN:034911675X The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency]]" books, and it is fitting that he has here provided a new Preface to the reissue, indicating that he has indeed been familiar with these stories for a long time. If you're a fan of Mma Ramotswe, then you will undoubtedly admire Inspector Ghote also, although the books make leave you with a distinct feeling of déjà vu. Just remember; Keating was there first. If you're looking for the next in the series, it is "[[ASIN:0140028765 Inspector Ghote's Good Crusade]]".

It is quite appropriate that Alexander McCall Smith has written the preface to this edition of The Perfect Murder because, although set on a different continent in a quite different society, Smith's own creation, Precious Ramotswe of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency has much in common with Inspector Ghote. Their methods are not dissimilar since both have a rather homespun, but effective approach to problem solving and both bring a large measure of basic cunning and common sense to bear. In Ramotswe's case her constant companion is a well thumbed edition of Clovis Andersen's `The Principles of Private Detection', whilst Ghote relies heavily on his equally well used copy of Hans Gross's `Criminal Detection'.

Ghote has two cases to crack - The Perfect Murder (named for the victim rather than the efficiency of the deed), and the theft of a small sum of money, the latter being the classic locked room scenario. Ghote sets about these cases methodically, using the principles of his reference book. However he is pulled in conflicting directions by the various demands of his superior, his wife and the various less than cooperative witnesses he encounters. One thing Ghote has in abundance though, is a dogged determination to succeed, whatever adversity has cast in his path. As the book goes on you feel that you get to know Ghote increasingly well and he comes across as a likeable if rather downtrodden character due to his relatively lowly perceived position in a very class conscious society.

The development of the plot is not particularly fast moving, but the characters are colourful and fascinating and Keating makes a very good job of setting his scenes. Some of the narrative is wonderful and very evocative. For example on a very large man - `he descended the stairs like a monsoon cloud gradually approaching the parched earth as if borne down by the weight of water in it'. Hence it is in no way a difficult read and interest in the outcome is maintained throughout. The Ghote series runs to over two dozen books, so plenty more to get your teeth into if you enjoy this tale as much as I did.

Plods along in a most irritating way. Every time there is a question whose answer would solve the crime......the author finds an excuse to cut away

H.R.F. Keating, an English crime writer, was born in 1926. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he received the George N. Dove Award in 1995 and was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger by the CWA in 1996. He even spent fifteen years as the crime books reviewer for The Times newspaper. Keating died in March 2011, aged 84.

"The Perfect Murder" sees the debut of Keating's best known character - Inspector Ganesh Ghote, of the Bombay CID. The police had been called in by Lala Arun Varde, distraught that his secretary - an elderly gentleman called Mr Perfect - had been killed. Varde is "a man of immense wealth" with "vast influence in the highest quarters" - and, as a result, he's someone Ghote doesn't want to displease. On the night of the attack, Varde is distraught and blames his business rivals - he apparently views it as an attack on him more than an attack on Perfect. (He was overly-reliant on his secretary by all accounts - but refuses to idenify any of the business rivals he blames). Things turn slightly farcical when it turns out that Mr Perfect actually survived the attack - although, at no point during the book did he ever fully regain consciousness. Even worse, when Ghote returns the following day to continue his investigation, Varde doesn't take him seriously - refusing to answer his questions and even denying that anything had happened. One of Varde's son, Dilip, is even worse : where Arun is childish and evasive, Dilip is high-handed and confrontational. The pair clearly believe a mere policeman is beneath them.

"The Perfect Murder" had been handed to Ghote by DSP Samant, officially as his number one priority. Unfortunately, Samant is quite happy to over-burden the Inspector : he also has to deal with Axel Svenssen, a criminologist from UNESCO, as his number one priority, and solve a robbery from the Minister for Police's office - again, as his number one priority. (Some money had been stolen from the Minister's desk, and his assistant swears no-one could have got into the room when the robbery took place). Still, it all seems a little over-zealous for a single rupee...

I knew virtually nothing of either Keating or Ghote before I opened the book, so the introduction written by Alexander McCall Smith was a bit of an education. (Smith was a big fan of Ghote's, by the looks of it). I did enjoy the book overall, and found Ghote a very likeable character : a dedicated police officer who, although a well-meaning husband and father, probably devotes a little to much time to his job. His job certainly wasn't easy, with the apparently widespread corruption and bribery - and the class system seemed to work against Ghote when dealing with the Varde family. Lala Varde was the book's only real flaw - he could barely complete a sentence without throwing in some irritating childish rhyme. Still, recommended overall - an easy and enjoyable read.