Inspector Ghote's First Case
Encyclopedia
Inspector Ghote's First Case is a crime novel by H. R. F. Keating
.
. This he hopes will allow him to spend time with his heavily pregnant wife, Protima. Sir Rustom Engineer, the retired Police Commissioner
of Bombay, asks Inspector Ghote to investigate the motiveless apparent suicide of Mrs Iris Dawkins, whose husband was an old friend of Sir Rustom's before Indian independence.
The case has already been investigated by Inspector Darrani, an old rival of Ghote's from police training college, but Inspector Ghote soon learns that the tragedy is not what it first seems to be.
and Inspector Ghote is on leave from the Bombay police before taking up a post in crime branch. His wife, Protima, is heavily pregnant with their first child. The former police commissioner, now retired, Sir Rustom Engineer requests that as a favour Ghote investigate the motiveless suicide of Iris Dawkins. Mr Robert Dawkins is an old friend of Sir Rustom's from before Indian independence and has written a letter asking for help.
Ghote arrives at the remote town where the tragedy occurred and finds that Iris Dawkins apparently committed suicide by shooting herself in the head with a shotgun without leaving a note. Afterwards the Dawkin's man servant telephoned Mr Dawkins at the nearby golf
club and asked to him return home as there had been a "nasty accident".
At the local police station
Ghote finds a rival from police training college, Inspector Darrani, has already investigated the case and has a closed mind on the subject.
Ghote gets the name of an old friend of Mrs Dawkins from an old letter: Pansy, who married a Forrest Officer named Peter Watson. Forrest Officers move from one place to another every few months, however, and Ghote has to use his initiative to find her.
Shinto, the young boy who takes care of the Dawkin's garden, tells Ghote that a young man apparently visited Mrs Dawkins on the morning of her suicide. From the same boy Ghote learns that the gun was in the wrong position for a left-handed person to have committed suicide with.
From Pansy Watson Ghote learns that Iris Dawkins was the daughter of Sir Ronald and Lady Mountford. Sir Ronald was an ICS Advisor to a Maharaja before independence. Her parents were killed by a rampaging elephant
while touring a remote area when Iris was a child. Iris stayed in India with the family of the British Resident until roughly the age of twelve or thirteen, when she was seduced by the son of a Maharaja
(who was the same age) and became pregnant. She was then sent to stay with the nuns at St Agnes Convent
in Poona until her child was delivered and then the child, a boy, was sent to the Raja
's palace. Iris Dawkins was then sent home to England
where she was cared for by poor relations of her own family and adopted their name, Petersham.
When she came of age Iris Petersham found a job in London and saved up until she could return to India after independence. She then came to stay with the Watsons until she met Robert Dawkins, who was a friend of Peter Watson, and married him.
Ghote learns that Iris Dawkins was left-handed and that her left eye had a green fleck from a picture taken by a local photographer. The fact that she was left-handed is relevant to the position of the shotgun she supposedly committed suicide with. The fact that her eyes, described by her husband as "violet", were in fact blue with a fleck of green shows Ghote that her husband, Robert Dawkins, held many cherished illusions about his wife.
When Ghote reports his findings to Mr Dawkins Inspector Darrani intervenes and persuades Mr Dawkins to put the matter behind him. Afterwards Ghote resolves to ask Inspector Darrani about the young man who was seen visiting Mrs Dawkins on the morning of her death. Ghote also realises, belatedly, that the phrase "a nasty accident" was specifically used in the telephone message that alerted Mr Dawkins to his wife's death and that such a phrase is more typical of a man like Mr Dawkins than the manservant who would have made the call.
Investigating at the golf club, Ghote learns that at the relevant time of day the club is nearly empty and that Mr Dawkins may have been the only person present. His alibi is therefore unsound.
Interviewing Shinto the gardener boy at the boy's home he learns that the Dawkins' manservant has threatened the boy to make him keep silent. Ghote decides to return to the Dawkins residence and interview the manservant about the morning of Mrs Dawkins' death.
After interviewing the manservant, Ghote realises that the man must be blackmail
ing his employer, Robert Dawkins, and re-assesses what he knows about Mr Dawkin's character.
Carefully considering the case, Ghote comes to the conclusion that the young man who visited Mrs Dawkins was in fact her long lost son who she would have immediately recognised from the green flecks in one eye, a genetic trait inherited from her. Robert Dawkins returned home from the club unexpectedly having forgotten his spectacles and found them embracing. Misunderstanding the situation, Robert Dawkins fetched the shotgun from his gun cabinet and killed Iris Dawkins, her son having already escaped at her urging.
The Dawkins' manservant then moved the body out of the room where the crime had taken place into the living room, while Dawkins himself returned to the club. The club being nearly deserted at that hour, no one had noticed his absence and it was there the message, phrased using words he had given to the manservant, was delivered to him.
Before Ghote can act on his conclusions, an urgent message comes for him telling him is wife, Protima, is about to give premature birth
. Ghote hurries back to his wife only to discover the message is a hoax
by his wife, who has been missing him. Ghote forgives his wife and after an hour, returns to the scene of the crime.
Ghote conducts another search of the Dawkins home and re-enacts the crime in an effort to prove his theory. He challenges the manservant with the knowledge that Iris Dawkins was killed in the sewing room, not the living room. The manservant confirms this and explains he was looking for a fragment of a letter written by the Maharaja to Mrs Iris Dawkins, which her son had dropped before fleeing the scene. The manservant also confirms that Inspector Darrani had quickly discovered that Iris Dawkins long lost son had visited her. The young man is now the surviving heir to the Maharaja, who has been searching for him. In hope of securing a large reward from the Maharaja, Inspector Darrani has concealed the young man's whereabouts and attempted close the books on Mrs Dawkins death quickly, with the minimum of investigation.
Ghote telephones Inspector Darrani and forces him to come to the house to arrest the manservant as an accessory after the fact. Robert Dawkins overhears Inspector Ghote put his case to Inspector Darrani and, after fetching the shotgun, commits suicide in the room where his wife died.
: A hard-working policeman, recently promoted to the rank of Inspector. He is married to Protima Ghote who is expecting their first child and lives in Bombay, India.
Protima Ghote: Ganesh Ghote's wife of less than a year at the start of the novel. She is heavily pregnant with the couple's first child. She is also a university
graduate of English Literature
. She is particularly fond of the works of Shakespeare and wants badly to see a film of Hamlet
that is being shown in Bombay.
Robert Dawkins: A British civil servant who remained in India after independence and his own retirement, believing he would have a better quality of life. He is an old friend of Sir Rustum Engineer and Peter Watson, through who he met future wife Iris Petersham.
Iris Dawkins: Born Iris Mountford, daughter of Sir and Lady Mountford, then orphaned at an early age. While staying with the British Resident in India, she was seduced by the son of the Maharaja, who was the same age as her, and gave birth to a son who was put up for adoption. She was later returned to the United Kingdom and adopted by the Petershams, who were poor relations to her own family. When she returned to India she met and married Robert Dawkins.
Sir Rustom Engineer: Retired Police Commissioner of Bombay Police. A friend of Robert Dawkins from the days before Indian independence. Sir Rustom responds to a letter from Robert Dawkins asking for help by sending Inspector Ghote to investigate the death of Iris Dawkins unofficially.
Inspector "Bully" Darrani: A rival of Inspector Ghote's from police training college. Darrani is a very forceful individual who seems to have a closed mind on nearly any topic once he has expressed an opinion on it. Darrani graduated at the top of his class from police training college by blackmailing Ghote into underperforming in the final exams, with the knowledge that Ghote had been disgraced and sent back from a police youth conference held in Moscow
after Ghote enabled a smuggler to bring Levis
jeans
(which were forbidden in the Soviet Union
) into the country.
To a lesser extent, Ghote's characteristic inability to make a decision is paralleled by Hamlet
, which is referred to several times in the novel.
The novel also deals with the cherished illusions people hold and how they react when these illusions are threatened. A key plot point of the novel is that Robert Dawkins chooses to see the world as he would like it to be, rather than the way it actually is. This even extends to his wife, whose blue and green eyes he describes as violet, and whose character and history is very different from what he imagines.
is referred to several times in the course of the novel and other plays by Shakespeare are also quoted, including Othello
.
newspaper's book review has an article entitled "Times Summer Books: Mysteries" written by Alexander McCall Smith
. The article mentions the release of "Inspector Ghote's First Case", but refers rather to the entire Inspector Ghote series instead of this specific novel. Smith refers to H. R. F. Keating
's work as the crime novel reviewer for The Times and calls the series: "exquisite, gentle novels that should find their place on any list of good crime fiction."
Allison & Busby
, the novel's publisher, quotes favourable reviews from The Spectator
, The Sunday Telegraph, The News of the World
, Literary Review
, Shots
and the Birmingham Post
on its website.
Mike Ripley's Crime File for May 2008 includes a review of the novel which refers to "…Keating's great skill as a writer, portraying [Ghote] with a graceful lightness of touch and great affection."
from the British Empire
and takes place in the Mumbai
(then known as Bombay) area of India. Part of the novel also takes place in Poona.
As a crime novel, the story heavily features the methods of criminal investigation used by the Indian Police in the 1960s
.
This is the twenty-third in the Inspector Ghote series of novels. The series itself has won two Gold Daggers, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association.
H. R. F. Keating
Henry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.-Life:...
.
Plot introduction
Inspector Ghote has just been promoted to inspector and is on leave before taking up his post in Bombay Criminal Investigation DepartmentCriminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
. This he hopes will allow him to spend time with his heavily pregnant wife, Protima. Sir Rustom Engineer, the retired Police Commissioner
Police commissioner
Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...
of Bombay, asks Inspector Ghote to investigate the motiveless apparent suicide of Mrs Iris Dawkins, whose husband was an old friend of Sir Rustom's before Indian independence.
The case has already been investigated by Inspector Darrani, an old rival of Ghote's from police training college, but Inspector Ghote soon learns that the tragedy is not what it first seems to be.
Plot summary
It's the early 1960s1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
and Inspector Ghote is on leave from the Bombay police before taking up a post in crime branch. His wife, Protima, is heavily pregnant with their first child. The former police commissioner, now retired, Sir Rustom Engineer requests that as a favour Ghote investigate the motiveless suicide of Iris Dawkins. Mr Robert Dawkins is an old friend of Sir Rustom's from before Indian independence and has written a letter asking for help.
Ghote arrives at the remote town where the tragedy occurred and finds that Iris Dawkins apparently committed suicide by shooting herself in the head with a shotgun without leaving a note. Afterwards the Dawkin's man servant telephoned Mr Dawkins at the nearby golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
club and asked to him return home as there had been a "nasty accident".
At the local police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
Ghote finds a rival from police training college, Inspector Darrani, has already investigated the case and has a closed mind on the subject.
Ghote gets the name of an old friend of Mrs Dawkins from an old letter: Pansy, who married a Forrest Officer named Peter Watson. Forrest Officers move from one place to another every few months, however, and Ghote has to use his initiative to find her.
Shinto, the young boy who takes care of the Dawkin's garden, tells Ghote that a young man apparently visited Mrs Dawkins on the morning of her suicide. From the same boy Ghote learns that the gun was in the wrong position for a left-handed person to have committed suicide with.
From Pansy Watson Ghote learns that Iris Dawkins was the daughter of Sir Ronald and Lady Mountford. Sir Ronald was an ICS Advisor to a Maharaja before independence. Her parents were killed by a rampaging elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
while touring a remote area when Iris was a child. Iris stayed in India with the family of the British Resident until roughly the age of twelve or thirteen, when she was seduced by the son of a Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
(who was the same age) and became pregnant. She was then sent to stay with the nuns at St Agnes Convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
in Poona until her child was delivered and then the child, a boy, was sent to the Raja
Raja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
's palace. Iris Dawkins was then sent home to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where she was cared for by poor relations of her own family and adopted their name, Petersham.
When she came of age Iris Petersham found a job in London and saved up until she could return to India after independence. She then came to stay with the Watsons until she met Robert Dawkins, who was a friend of Peter Watson, and married him.
Ghote learns that Iris Dawkins was left-handed and that her left eye had a green fleck from a picture taken by a local photographer. The fact that she was left-handed is relevant to the position of the shotgun she supposedly committed suicide with. The fact that her eyes, described by her husband as "violet", were in fact blue with a fleck of green shows Ghote that her husband, Robert Dawkins, held many cherished illusions about his wife.
When Ghote reports his findings to Mr Dawkins Inspector Darrani intervenes and persuades Mr Dawkins to put the matter behind him. Afterwards Ghote resolves to ask Inspector Darrani about the young man who was seen visiting Mrs Dawkins on the morning of her death. Ghote also realises, belatedly, that the phrase "a nasty accident" was specifically used in the telephone message that alerted Mr Dawkins to his wife's death and that such a phrase is more typical of a man like Mr Dawkins than the manservant who would have made the call.
Investigating at the golf club, Ghote learns that at the relevant time of day the club is nearly empty and that Mr Dawkins may have been the only person present. His alibi is therefore unsound.
Interviewing Shinto the gardener boy at the boy's home he learns that the Dawkins' manservant has threatened the boy to make him keep silent. Ghote decides to return to the Dawkins residence and interview the manservant about the morning of Mrs Dawkins' death.
After interviewing the manservant, Ghote realises that the man must be blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ing his employer, Robert Dawkins, and re-assesses what he knows about Mr Dawkin's character.
Carefully considering the case, Ghote comes to the conclusion that the young man who visited Mrs Dawkins was in fact her long lost son who she would have immediately recognised from the green flecks in one eye, a genetic trait inherited from her. Robert Dawkins returned home from the club unexpectedly having forgotten his spectacles and found them embracing. Misunderstanding the situation, Robert Dawkins fetched the shotgun from his gun cabinet and killed Iris Dawkins, her son having already escaped at her urging.
The Dawkins' manservant then moved the body out of the room where the crime had taken place into the living room, while Dawkins himself returned to the club. The club being nearly deserted at that hour, no one had noticed his absence and it was there the message, phrased using words he had given to the manservant, was delivered to him.
Before Ghote can act on his conclusions, an urgent message comes for him telling him is wife, Protima, is about to give premature birth
Premature birth
In humans preterm birth refers to the birth of a baby of less than 37 weeks gestational age. The cause for preterm birth is in many situations elusive and unknown; many factors appear to be associated with the development of preterm birth, making the reduction of preterm birth a challenging...
. Ghote hurries back to his wife only to discover the message is a hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
by his wife, who has been missing him. Ghote forgives his wife and after an hour, returns to the scene of the crime.
Ghote conducts another search of the Dawkins home and re-enacts the crime in an effort to prove his theory. He challenges the manservant with the knowledge that Iris Dawkins was killed in the sewing room, not the living room. The manservant confirms this and explains he was looking for a fragment of a letter written by the Maharaja to Mrs Iris Dawkins, which her son had dropped before fleeing the scene. The manservant also confirms that Inspector Darrani had quickly discovered that Iris Dawkins long lost son had visited her. The young man is now the surviving heir to the Maharaja, who has been searching for him. In hope of securing a large reward from the Maharaja, Inspector Darrani has concealed the young man's whereabouts and attempted close the books on Mrs Dawkins death quickly, with the minimum of investigation.
Ghote telephones Inspector Darrani and forces him to come to the house to arrest the manservant as an accessory after the fact. Robert Dawkins overhears Inspector Ghote put his case to Inspector Darrani and, after fetching the shotgun, commits suicide in the room where his wife died.
Characters in "Inspector Ghote's First Case"
Inspector Ganesh GhoteInspector Ghote
Inspector Ganesh V. Ghote is a fictional police officer who is the main character in H. R. F. Keating's detective novels. Ghote is an inspector in the police force of Bombay , India....
: A hard-working policeman, recently promoted to the rank of Inspector. He is married to Protima Ghote who is expecting their first child and lives in Bombay, India.
Protima Ghote: Ganesh Ghote's wife of less than a year at the start of the novel. She is heavily pregnant with the couple's first child. She is also a university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
graduate of English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
. She is particularly fond of the works of Shakespeare and wants badly to see a film of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
that is being shown in Bombay.
Robert Dawkins: A British civil servant who remained in India after independence and his own retirement, believing he would have a better quality of life. He is an old friend of Sir Rustum Engineer and Peter Watson, through who he met future wife Iris Petersham.
Iris Dawkins: Born Iris Mountford, daughter of Sir and Lady Mountford, then orphaned at an early age. While staying with the British Resident in India, she was seduced by the son of the Maharaja, who was the same age as her, and gave birth to a son who was put up for adoption. She was later returned to the United Kingdom and adopted by the Petershams, who were poor relations to her own family. When she returned to India she met and married Robert Dawkins.
Sir Rustom Engineer: Retired Police Commissioner of Bombay Police. A friend of Robert Dawkins from the days before Indian independence. Sir Rustom responds to a letter from Robert Dawkins asking for help by sending Inspector Ghote to investigate the death of Iris Dawkins unofficially.
Inspector "Bully" Darrani: A rival of Inspector Ghote's from police training college. Darrani is a very forceful individual who seems to have a closed mind on nearly any topic once he has expressed an opinion on it. Darrani graduated at the top of his class from police training college by blackmailing Ghote into underperforming in the final exams, with the knowledge that Ghote had been disgraced and sent back from a police youth conference held in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
after Ghote enabled a smuggler to bring Levis
Levis
-People:*François de Gaston, Chevalier de Lévis , French soldier best known for his command in Canada in 1760*George Levis , American college basketball player and coach*Georges Lévis , French adult comic artist-Places:Canada...
jeans
Jeans
Jeans are trousers made from denim. Some of the earliest American blue jeans were made by Jacob Davis, Calvin Rogers, and Levi Strauss in 1873. Starting in the 1950s, jeans, originally designed for cowboys, became popular among teenagers. Historic brands include Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler...
(which were forbidden in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
) into the country.
Major themes
Inspector Ghote's First Case deals with the suicide and it's aftermath, but also with murder and fears related to pregnancy. The attitude of the British in India after independence and of the Indian's towards the British is also closely examined. To a lesser extent, the British attitude to scandal and unmarried childbirth is also a feature of the story.To a lesser extent, Ghote's characteristic inability to make a decision is paralleled by Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, which is referred to several times in the novel.
The novel also deals with the cherished illusions people hold and how they react when these illusions are threatened. A key plot point of the novel is that Robert Dawkins chooses to see the world as he would like it to be, rather than the way it actually is. This even extends to his wife, whose blue and green eyes he describes as violet, and whose character and history is very different from what he imagines.
Allusions/references to other works
Shakespeare's play HamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
is referred to several times in the course of the novel and other plays by Shakespeare are also quoted, including Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
.
Literary significance & criticism
The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper's book review has an article entitled "Times Summer Books: Mysteries" written by Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees...
. The article mentions the release of "Inspector Ghote's First Case", but refers rather to the entire Inspector Ghote series instead of this specific novel. Smith refers to H. R. F. Keating
H. R. F. Keating
Henry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating was an English crime fiction writer most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.-Life:...
's work as the crime novel reviewer for The Times and calls the series: "exquisite, gentle novels that should find their place on any list of good crime fiction."
Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby is a British publishing house, set up by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher....
, the novel's publisher, quotes favourable reviews from The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, The Sunday Telegraph, The News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, Literary Review
Literary Review
Literary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho, London, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was...
, Shots
Shots
- Reaction :The national broadcaster RTÉ gave the album four stars out of five in its review, stating that his music "shows an astute observation of Irish life" and praising him for "giving a voice to the downtrodden". The songs "Sing All Our Cares Away", the opening track, and "Choctaw Nation",...
and the Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
The Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...
on its website.
Mike Ripley's Crime File for May 2008 includes a review of the novel which refers to "…Keating's great skill as a writer, portraying [Ghote] with a graceful lightness of touch and great affection."
Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The novel refers to the independence of IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
from the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and takes place in the Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
(then known as Bombay) area of India. Part of the novel also takes place in Poona.
As a crime novel, the story heavily features the methods of criminal investigation used by the Indian Police in the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
.
Awards and nominations
The Crime Writer's Association named "Inspector Ghote's First Case" as one of several novels that failed to make the shortlist for the 2008 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award.This is the twenty-third in the Inspector Ghote series of novels. The series itself has won two Gold Daggers, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association.
Release details
- 2008, United Kingdom, Allison & Busby, ISBN 0-7490-7970-3 / 978-0-7490-7970-3, 26 May 2008, hardback.
- 2009, United Kingdom, St Martin's Minotaur, ISBN 0-312-38404-1 / 978-0-312-38404-3, August 2009, hardback.
Sources, references, external links, quotations
- Allison & Busby publisher's website on the novel. (Retrieved 19 May 2008)
- FantasticFiction.co.uk's entry for Inspector Ghote's First Case. (Retrieved 19 May 2008)
- Eurocrime's website with review by Mike Ripley written May 2008. (Retrieved 19 May 2008)
- Amazon.co.uk page for "Inspector Ghote's First Case". (Retrieved 19 May 2008)