The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery

Introducing Bombay CID''s most dogged, dutiful officer, and one of the greatest, most engaging creations in all detective fiction, H.R.F. Keating''s The Perfect Murder: The First Inspector Ghote Mystery includes a preface by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies'' Detective Agency, in Penguin Modern Classics.

One crime that couldn''t have happened, one that probably hasn''t. Nothing''s ever easy for Inspector Ghote. In the house of Lala Varde, a vast man of even vaster influence, an attack has taken place. Varde''s secretary, Mr Perfect, has been struck on his invaluable business head. And try as Inspector Ghote might to remain conscientious and methodical, his investigation is beset on all sides by cunning, disdain and corruption. And then there''s another urgent case to be dealt with: the impossible theft of a single rupee . . .

H. R. F. Keating (1926-2011) was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex. He went to Merchant Taylors, leaving early t