H. R. F. Keating

• Born: October 31, 1926
• Birthplace: St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex (now in East Sussex), England
• Died: March 27, 2011

Types of Plot: Police procedural; amateur sleuth; historical; cozy

Principal Series: Inspector Ghote, 1964-; Harriet Unwin, 1983-; Inspector Harriet Martens, 2000-

Contribution

H. R. F. Keating’s Inspector Ghote novels form his greatest contribution to detective fiction. They are fascinating because of their exotic background, being mostly set in Bombay (Mumbai) or other parts of India; because of their willingness to deal with social issues; and because of the character of Ghote himself. The reader sympathizes with the inspector as he tries to use his rather ordinary talents to cope with the problems his superiors call on him to solve. He must strive hard to preserve his own dignity and integrity and at the same time to meet the outrageous demands made on him by his superiors. Keating’s readers identify with him, suffer with him, and feel triumphant when he succeeds.

Keating has also written a number of other crime novels, including the Harriet Unwin series he published under the pseudonym of Evelyn Hervey. He is a great connoisseur of the genre, as revealed by his many reviews of crime novels for The Times of London and the excellent critical works on the subject he has written and edited.

Keating often has been recognized for his work in the genre: among other honors he has won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger Award and the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for The Perfect Murder (1964), a second Edgar Award for his nonfictional study Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World (1979), a second Gold Dagger Award for The Murder of the Maharajah (1980), and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement in 1996. He was given a Malic Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005.

Biography

Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating was born on October 31, 1926, in St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England, the son of schoolmaster John Hervey Keating and Muriel Marguerita Clews Keating. He attended Merchant Taylor’s School in London from 1940 to 1944, after which he served in the British army from 1945 until 1948, rising to the rank of acting lance corporal. Subsequently, he attended Trinity College, Dublin, receiving a bachelor of arts degree in 1952. He married actress Sheila Mary Mitchell in 1952, and the couple has three sons, Simon, Piers, and Hugo, and one daughter, Bryony. Following graduation from college, Keating worked as a subeditor on a Wiltshire newspaper, the Evening Advertiser, for three years (1952-1955). Afterward, he moved to London, where he worked for the Daily Telegraph (1955-1957) and The Times (1958-1960).

Keating’s first mystery novel, Death and the Visiting Firemen, appeared in 1959 and his second, Zen There Was Murder, in 1960. The first Inspector Ghote novel, The Perfect Murder (1964), brought him great acclaim, including the Gold Dagger Award and the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Since he began writing fiction, Keating has been extremely prolific, publishing an Inspector Ghote novel almost every year. With the beginning of the twenty-first century, Keating turned away from his most popular creation to begin a new series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens. Since her debut in The Hard Detective (2000), the Martens character has appeared on an almost annual basis.

Keating has also written a number of other novels—including a historical mystery series under the pseudonym Evelyn Hervey—as well as short stories, radio plays, a screenplay, and several full-length nonfictional works, most of which deal with crime and mystery fiction, including Murder Must Appetize (1975), Great Crimes (1982), Writing Crime Fiction (1986), and Crime and Mystery: The One Hundred Best Books (1987). Keating, who has edited a number of books, has contributed articles to such publications as Dictionary of National Biography, Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, Great Detective Stories, and Top Crime. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Blackwood’s and have been frequently anthologized.

The crime-book reviewer for The Times of London from 1967 to 1983, Keating has received the plaudits of his peers both for his fiction and for his critical works on the detective story. He garnered the 1970 short-story prize from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, has collected two Edgar Awards, two Gold Dagger Awards, and the Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement. A longtime member of the Crime Writers Association (chair, 1970-1971), Keating also belongs to the Society of Authors (chair, 1982-1984) and the Detection Club (president, 1985).

Analysis

Apart from native words that are frequent and unavoidable in describing his milieu, Inspector Ghote’s Indian English differs from standard English in the use of progressive verb forms where simple present or past tenses would normally be used. “Yes, sir, I am very well knowing,” and “Yes, Sheriff Sahib, I am very well understanding,” Ghote typically says. The investigator also often omits articles (“a,” “the”), and in general there is an old-fashioned formality and stiffness about Ghote’s English. Similarly, American and other foreign characters in H. R. F. Keating’s books speak quaintly.

Keating walks a narrow line in his depiction of Ghote’s professional naïveté and his depiction of Indian conditions in general. He often strikes a humorous note but without malice. It is difficult to depict conditions of ignorance and corruption without being contemptuous or patronizing, but Keating manages it. The inclusion of the Swedish criminologist in the first volume was a masterstroke, as he is portrayed as being more naïve than Ghote in many ways, and this helps to remove racial overtones from the satire.

In the first novel of the series, Ghote faces the odds he must battle again and again in different circumstances throughout the series. Rich and powerful men can do as they wish, and they ride roughshod over those who are less fortunate. The bureaucrats in the police department kowtow to the rich and powerful, and they expect their subordinates to do so as well. These chiefs issue confused and arbitrary orders that are all but impossible to carry out. The small man who tries to do his best must live in constant fear of reprisals if he dares to stand up against them and risks demotion or dismissal if he is not successful at impossible tasks he is assigned. Although Ghote is often quaking with fear, he maintains his integrity.

Keating is skillful at describing the rich and powerful and exposing their weaknesses and vanities. The minister of police in The Perfect Murder rules his little empire with an iron hand but is an arrant philanderer behind the scenes. Although Lala Varde was the person who reported the crime, he is very uncooperative toward Ghote, treating him in a most disdainful and contemptuous manner, refusing to answer any questions and putting obstacles in his path when he attempts to question other members of the household. Varde frequently threatens to have Ghote demoted for insolence. The maharajah in The Murder of the Maharajah has two wives and a number of concubines, cheats at chess, and plays cruel practical jokes on his subjects and guests. The swami in Go West, Inspector Ghote (1981) is almost too horrendously credible as the guru who presides over a cult. The sheriff in The Sheriff of Bombay (1984), although a popular figure and a cricketer of note, frequents the brothels in a run-down section of the city. “His Excellency” Surinder Mehta in The Body in the Billiard Room (1987), who sets great store by the methods of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, tries to tell Ghote how to conduct his investigation and is unable to bear the ignominy of being beaten at golf by him.

Keating does not spare his compatriots. The resident adviser in The Murder of the Maharajah is as irrational and inconsiderate in his commands to his underlings as are Ghote’s superiors. The rock singer, Johnny Bull, in Inspector Ghote Hunts the Peacock (1968), manifests his own type of arrogance and unconscionable behavior.

Often Ghote suffers embarrassments and indignities in the course of his inquiries. In The Perfect Murder, for example, while in pursuit of a suspect, he is hit over the head by the proprietor of a stall containing scent bottles, and he knocks over the stall. In Inspector Ghote’s Good Crusade (1966), he trips and falls on his face while running after a small boy. On none of his cases does he suffer more indignities than he does in Inspector Ghote Hunts the Peacock, which takes place in London. He is manhandled by a moronic thug and saved by a smug constable, who sends him home on a bus; he is snubbed by a Scotland Yard inspector when he thinks that he is giving him valuable information; he is harassed by children, soaked to the skin, and urinated on by a dog while keeping watch on suspicious premises; and he comes down with a cold just when he must read a speech to an assemblage of international dignitaries.

As the series continues, Ghote’s personal life comes into the foreground. In a burst of misplaced generosity he squanders five hundred rupees he had been saving to buy his wife a refrigerator in Inspector Ghote’s Good Crusade. When he goes to London in Inspector Ghote Hunts the Peacock, relatives of his Bengali wife besiege him to help them locate a missing girl. In Bats Fly Up for Inspector Ghote (1974), he becomes extremely jealous of a well-to-do neighbor whom his wife is constantly praising. In The Sheriff of Bombay, his wife, Protima, is upset when she finds reading material that their son Ved, now thirteen, has hidden away. In Under a Monsoon Cloud (1986), he faces a moral dilemma when it appears that he must either perjure himself or tell the truth and face dismissal from the force.

Ghote’s exploits are not limited to Bombay. InInspector Ghote Hunts the Peacock, he is sent to England to substitute for a high-ranking official at an international drug-enforcement conference. In Inspector Ghote Goes by Train (1971), he must bring back a prisoner from Calcutta, while in Inspector Ghote Draws a Line (1979) he is sent to a remote corner of India to protect a judge whose life has been threatened. In Go West, Inspector Ghote, he travels to California to rescue a girl who has come under the sway of a swami. In The Body in the Billiard Room, he goes on a special assignment to the hill station of Ootacamund in the mountains of southern India, where he resides at what was once a British officers’ club, a remnant of British rule. Especially in the novels where Ghote travels to England and America, Keating is able to work the exotic setting in reverse. Here, readers are interested in the effect on Ghote of a setting more familiar to them than to him.

The Perfect Murder

Keating hit his stride in 1964 with The Perfect Murder, the first of the Inspector Ghote series. All the elements that characterize the series are already present in this first volume. Ghote is a scrupulously honest, persistent, and hardworking inspector on the Bombay police force. Although he is never clearly described, he appears to be small and not particularly prepossessing. He is hampered by the corruption, sloth, and incompetence of his colleagues and subordinates and is constantly hectored by his superiors, so that he must stand in constant fear of unjust demotion or dismissal.

Ghote is devoted to the scientific practice of criminology as laid down in a textbook titled Criminal Investigation, adapted from the German of Dr. Hans Gross (a book that he discovered in a bazaar). He has perused Gross’s work so thoroughly that he knows many of its precepts by heart and is constantly quoting them. He frequently makes mistakes and is often placed in situations beyond his knowledge or abilities, but he sticks doggedly to his job and in the end succeeds—often, it must be admitted, because of good luck more than anything else.

This first novel of the series has an ambiguous title: Ghote is assigned to investigate the murder of the Parsi secretary, named Perfect, a rich businessman. To complicate his lot further, a Swedish criminologist from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Axel Svensson, who is investigating crime detection in developing countries, accompanies Ghote. Svensson’s enthusiasm and ardent desire to learn everything there is to know about India cause Ghote great annoyance and embarrassment, particularly when the Swede is willing to believe that supernatural events can take place in the mysterious East.

When Ghote arrives on the scene of the supposed murder, he finds that the Parsi is still alive, though hovering on the brink of death. Throughout the novel Ghote lives in fear that the man will die, in which case Ghote will be under greater pressure to find the culprit. He meets only hostility from the members of the household of Perfect’s employer. As this inquiry is progressing, he is informed that he is to give highest priority to another case, this one involving the theft of one rupee, worth at the time about twenty cents, from the drawer of the desk of the minister of police. Expostulating in vain, Ghote must hurry to the scene of the crime. Throughout the rest of the novel, he darts back and forth between the two cases, with the faithful Swede always in tow. When he finally gets home after a long night and day on duty, expecting to find solace, his scolding wife is annoyed because he has stayed away so long. She has even coached their son, so that he is cold toward his father the next morning.

The rest of the novel is packed with action, some of it exciting, much of it hilarious. When Ghote finds that the only suspect in the rupee theft, a Goan, has disappeared, he sets out to find him in the crowded Goan district of Bombay, the eager Swede on his heels. Through good luck they locate him, but when they are unable to find the money or get him to confess, they leave in disgust. The next day, however, Ghote is commanded to arrest him, and this time they find him watching a trained white bull that tells fortunes. At the urging of the credulous Swede, the bull confirms that the Goan is a thief, and he confesses in terror that he has stolen other things from the minister but denies having stolen the rupee.

At the scene of the assault on Perfect, Ghote has trouble trying to interview the businessman’s daughter-in-law. When she refuses to come forward, he is forced to search the women’s quarters and eventually finds her hiding in a chest. He becomes convinced that the younger son is the culprit, but when Ghote tries to arrest him, the father helps the boy escape and leads Ghote and Svensson on a merry chase through the crowded bazaars of Bombay.

The search and chase scenes allow Keating the opportunity to include vivid descriptions of Bombay. This achievement is remarkable, considering that Keating visited India only after he had been writing Ghote novels for ten years. He derived his knowledge, he says, from reading about India and viewing films and television broadcasts. He is also a master at simulating the variety of English spoken in India.

The Murder of the Maharajah

The Murder of the Maharajah is generally classified with the Inspector Ghote novels, although the action takes place in 1930 when India was still under British rule and thus before Inspector Ghote’s time. In fact, Julian Symons has maintained that it “shows what Keating can do when free of Ghote.” The work is linked with the Inspector Ghote novels, however, in an odd fashion, which is not revealed until the last page of the book.

Keating’s plots are varied and generally well structured, although, as is only natural in such a prolific output, some are more successful than others. Sometimes the exotic setting and the picturesque characters come close to eclipsing the plot.

Keating has stated that he uses crime fiction to say what he has to say, and that he believes that the crime novel is “every bit as useful as the straight novel . . . for saying things about the human condition.” The theme that remains constant throughout the Inspector Ghote novels is that only occasionally can honest devotion to duty and compassion prevail against the arrogance of the rich and powerful, the corruption in all quarters of life, the imperfection of humankind.

Breaking and Entering

The Inspector Ghote series novel Breaking and Entering (2000) reintroduces a major character from the debut entry: UNESCO crime investigator Axel Svensson. Now a widower, Svensson has returned to Bombay, to relieve the depression caused by the long Swedish winter and the recent death of his wife. Riding on a tourist bus, Svensson manages to spot Ghote among the teeming masses in the city of thirteen million and immediately attaches himself like a limpet to the harried Indian inspector. Though he longs to be investigating the murder of millionaire Anil Ajmani, Ghote has been assigned a more pedestrian task: tracking down a cat burglar the press calls Yashwant (after a climbing lizard from Indian mythology), who specializes in stealthily scaling high-rise apartments where wealthy Indians sleep to steal single items of valuable jewelry. Patiently, the unimaginative but persistent detective—often accompanied by the large, inquisitive Swede who is unable to properly pronounce Indian names but often makes observations valuable to the investigation—questions a string of suspects. Eventually, Ghote stumbles on the jewel thief: a member of the powerful upper class who robbed for excitement but who would not be prosecuted for the crimes. The thief agrees to return the stolen jewelry, and having unsuccessfully cased the Ajmani residence, unwittingly supplies a clue to the rich man’s murder. Ghote thus solves two of the Crime Branch’s major cases, and by the end of the novel, it appears the detective will at last receive a long-awaited promotion.

Principal Series Characters:

• Ganesh Ghote is an inspector on the police force of Bombay, India. The son of a schoolmaster, he appears to be in his thirties at the beginning of the series. He resides in a “neat new house in Government Quarters” with his wife, Protima, and son, Ved (five years old at the beginning of the series and the apple of his eye). By dint of hard work, determination, and good luck, he prevails against the forces of evil.
• Harriet Unwin is a young governess in Victorian London—1870 at the start of the series. She grew up in an orphan asylum with Mary Vilkins, who appears as her best friend throughout the series. She becomes a sleuth to clear herself when she comes under suspicion of murder and thereafter uses her talents to help her friends.
• Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens , who is nicknamed “the hard detective” for the no-nonsense persona she must adopt to survive in the male-dominated environment of British law enforcement, must constantly prove her mettle in both her professional and personal lives.

Bibliography

DeAndrea, William L. Encyclopedia Mysteriosa: A Comprehensive Guide to the Art of Detection in Print, Film, Radio, and Television. New York: Prentice Hall, 1994. Brief entries on Keating and on his creation, Ganesh Ghote.

Fletcher, Connie. Review of The Hard Detective, by H. R. F. Keating. The Booklist 96, no. 17 (May 1, 2000): 1621. A highly favorable review of The Hard Detective, wherein Detective Chief Inspector Harriet Martens leads an investigation into a biblically oriented serial killer. Praised for its creative plotting, which the reviewer compares to that of Agatha Christie, as well as for its crisp writing and interesting characters.

Herbert, Rosemary. “The Cosy Side of Murder: Ten Noted British Mystery Writers Make It Sound Like Fun.” Publishers Weekly 228, no. 17 (October 25, 1985): 20-32. Brief profiles of and quotations from such popular mystery authors as Simon Brett, Marian Babson, Julian Symons, Peter Lovesy, Michael Gilbert, and Keating, focusing on his best-known creation, Inspector Ghote.

Keating, H. R. F. “Ganesh V. Ghote.” In The Great Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler. New York: Mysterious Press, 1978. A discussion, by the author, of his best-known creation, Ganesh Vinayak Ghote, written humorously in the character’s own voice. Provides insights into Keating’s philosophical approach in giving each series entry a particular theme. Indexed with bibliography and filmography.

King, Nina, with Robin Winks. Crimes of the Scene: A Mystery Novel Guide for the International Traveler. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. Provides a brief description of places mentioned in Keating’s Inspector Ganesh Ghote of Bombay series.

Pitt, David. Review of The Soft Detective, by H. R. F. Keating. The Booklist 95, no. 2 (September 15, 1998): 203. A favorable review of The Soft Detective, in which Detective Chief Inspector Phil Benholme investigates the murder of a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist and discovers evidence that implicates his own teenage son. Acclaimed as a story that examines the lawman’s dilemma of how to protect his son while capturing the real killer.

Pronzini, Bill, and Marcia Muller, eds. 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado’s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. New York: Arbor House, 1986. Contains reviews of Keating’s Inspector Ghote Caught in Meshes and a non-Ghote title, The Murder of the Maharajah, which give the works positive marks for their delightful settings and characters with the caveat that through they unfold slowly, they are richly rewarding in giving the reader the experience of India.

Ripley, Mike. “Humorous Crime, or Dead Funny.” In The Fine Art of Murder: The Mystery Reader’s Indispensable Companion, edited by Ed Gorman, Martin H. Greenberg, and Larry Segriff with Jon L. Breen. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1993. Briefly calls attention to Keating’s deft comedic touch.

Symons, Julian. “Crime Novel and Police Novel.” In Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel. Rev. ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1985. Provides a brief discussion of the development of Keating’s skills in depicting his best-known fictional creation, Inspector Ghote.