English Mysteries Club discussion

H. R. F. Keating, the prolific British crime novelist who created Ganesh Ghote, the humble Indian police inspector in Bombay, died on Sunday in London. He was 84.

More than 20 of his novels (as well as many short stories) featured Inspector Ghote (pronounced GO-tay), a man of peculiar charm in detectivedom. Shy and self-questioning and more benignly disposed toward humankind than the Sam Spades or Philip Marlowes of the world, Ghote is not especially tough or especially insightful in the ways of the criminal mind. He is, however, possessed of unassailable integrity, and he’s one of those stick-to-it guys who just can’t be put off the case.

The Inspector Ghote novels were frequently praised for their accurate portrayal of life in Bombay, now known as Mumbai.

By 2000 Mr. Keating had guided Inspector Ghote through more than 20 book-length investigations and had temporarily interrupted the series and begun another, this one featuring Harriet Martens, a shrewd English police detective. The first of seven Martens novels, “The Hard Detective” — so-called because of the shell of toughness the protagonist must wear to conduct business in the overwhelmingly male world of crime detection in England — was published in 2000. Mr. Keating recently returned to Inspector Ghote, publishing two books, “Inspector Ghote’s First Case” (2008) and “A Small Case for Inspector Ghote?” (2009).

Thomas - Thank you for posting this! I've added it to a new folder I've created called 'English Mysteries News'. If anyone else comes across such news, please feel free to add it and post it to the group!