Can someone write a murder mystery set in an alien land that he or she has never lived in, visited, or generally been exposed to in great detail?

Yes, apparently, it can be done.

Will it be any good?

And how.

HRF Keating, a British author, had already tasted success with his initial novels - on murders and mystery. However, when he tried to introduce a new character for a new series, his American publishers rejected them all - on account of being “too British”. After all, there’s never been any dearth of the investigating English - Sherlock Holmes being at the forefront of it all, leading right up to simple pastors like Father Brown. Keating’s publishers might have felt the strain of adding another name to that esteemed list.

Enter Inspector Ghote of Bombay Police.

Keating decided to base his new character in a country he had never been too, had to research of in book (internet wasn’t a thing), watching the odd art-film that came out of the city of his choice, and talk to friends and acquaintances who had returned from the bustling country to base his entire plot, the ethos, the mannerisms and most importantly, the crimes.

I really can’t fathom how hard this entire process might have been. It’s difficult for someone sitting in 2023 to figure how tough it might have been to figure out every single excruciating detail to build a resolute backbone on which a detective mystery might stand.

Inspector Ghote was first introduced in The Perfect Murder (1964) - the victim was badly injured, not killed; what made it the Perfect Murder was that it was the attempted murder of a man called Mr Perfect. And Inspector Ghote was in charge of catching the culprit behind Mr Perfect’s sad predicament. Brilliantly paced, British humor overflowing across the pages, you couldn’t help but feel a fond fascination for the honest inspector and his efforts to catch his culprit. Surprisingly, what Keating managed to capture even better was the city of Bombay from back then, even with a hint of oriental mysticism that came to be the subcontinent’s crisis of identity from times past. But at no point did he overdo it. It hung at the back, popping it’s head up every now and then, tastefully intertwined with the burning necessity to reach the end of a crisp whodunnit.

And while Keating had considered Ghote and his Perfect Murder to be a one-off - before moving back to charted lands - the success and popularity of the character immediately spelt out a different story. The good Inspector went on to star in 26 titles from that point onwards, turning out to be the main body of HRF Keating’s exhaustive list of works.

By 1972 we saw the release of Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, a case of mistaken kidnapping. Ghote is assigned the case of a rich man’s son being kidnapped, ransom letter and all - only when he arrives on the scene does he realize that the kidnappers made off with the young boy’s playmate instead, a poor tailor’s son. Having realised their mistake, the kidnappers were likely to let the boy go and try their luck later again. But that doesn’t happen. Instead, the kidnappers keep to their original plans, asking for exorbitant sums of money to release the boy. How much is a poor tailor’s son worth? Would the tailor’s affluent boss agree to pay the same son for a boy his son’s age? Or would he bargain? Or would he renege on his commitment completely?

As Ghote maneuvers his next move through extremely tricky waters, his own boss - the DCP - breathing down on his neck, considering the high profile nature of this kidnapping case, his own son is burning up with fever, adding to the strain between Ghote and his firebrand wife at home. Is the son of a tailor more important that his own son’s well-being? Ghote is the literal personification of the horns of a dilemma.

Things take an even more morbid turn when the kidnappers up the ante and try to stress upon their capacity to follow through with their threats. A poor child’s life hangs in the balance and the police are yet to make any headway - this might end up being Inspector Ghote’s toughest case yet.

Unwittingly comic, grippingly tense, Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart is another masterpiece from the house of HRF Keating. Extremely enjoyable - both as a work of detective fiction, and the character of Inspector Ghote himself - these books are absolutely unputdownable. Read one, you’ll want to read them all.

Try living a day in the life of Inspector Ghote. You’ll want a lot more of him.