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Inspector Ghote #9
Bats Fly Up for Inspector Ghote
Insp. Ghote of the Bombay police has been relegated to antipickpocket patrol where he promptly gets himself into one of those fearful fixes which are equally the product of his faults and his virtues.
- GenresCrime
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
4 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
H.R.F. Keating
157 books54 followersHenry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating was an English writer of crime fiction most notable for his series of novels featuring Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID.
H. R. F. KEATING was well versed in the worlds of crime, fiction and nonfiction. He was the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years, as well as serving as the chairman of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors. He won the CWA Gold Dagger Award twice, and in 1996 was awarded the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding service to crime fiction.
Series:
. Inspector Ghote
. Harriet Martens
Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Perfectly Criminal
H. R. F. KEATING was well versed in the worlds of crime, fiction and nonfiction. He was the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years, as well as serving as the chairman of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors. He won the CWA Gold Dagger Award twice, and in 1996 was awarded the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding service to crime fiction.
Series:
. Inspector Ghote
. Harriet Martens
Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Perfectly Criminal
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 30, 2018
Excellent, as good as many others in the series.
August 16, 2021
Not a bad read
Hard to put down, with a good storyline and insightful characters. Overall, enjoyed reading this book and looking forward to the next one.
Hard to put down, with a good storyline and insightful characters. Overall, enjoyed reading this book and looking forward to the next one.
June 16, 2011
The Imperfectionists
By Tom Rachman
6/1/11
Rachman offers both comedy and pathos in this novel about an English language newspaper published in Rome (a fictional doppelganger of the International Herald Tribune). The novel actually consists of a series of related short stories, each having as the main character a different person connected with the newspaper. Although the stories (and characters) are contemporary, each story is followed by a brief vignette that together, sequentially trace the newspaper’s history and vicissitudes beginning with its founding in the early 1950’s. Thus, in addition to going into depth about these contemporary characters, the author offers a complete backstory of the newspaper. Each story/chapter, by the way, has as its title the title of a news story that appeared in the paper at the time that the chapter happened.
Overall, this piece-by-piece construction of a novel left me with a deep feeling for the novel’s central character, the newspaper. Some of the individual stories are artful and fascinating but others struck me as readable but ho-hum, suggesting that the author is no less an imperfectionist than his characters. I was particularly taken by “Europeans are Lazy, Study Shows”, while tells of the love life of Hardy Benjamin, the business reporter; “The Sex Lives of Islamic Extremists”, which is memorable for its parodic portrait of a veteran swashbuckling correspondent who specializes in covering wars and terror groups in the line of fire, but is now reduced to competing for a humble stringer position in Cairo (this was even more fun because my wife and I spent time in the same streets and eateries in Cairo’s Zamalek neighborhood where this story takes place); and most of “Markets Crash Over Fears of China Slowdown”, which touchingly depicts an unlikely romantic encounter between the paper’s chief financial officer and a copy editor, whom she just played a key role in laying off. If what I’ve described piques your interest, avanti!
Bats Fly Up for Inspector Ghote
By H.R.F. Keating
6/14/11
It was one of those leads that I get from reading the obituaries: a celebrated British mystery writer, known for his series featuring Inspector Ghote, a policeman in Bombay. The obit praised Keating as an old-fashion writer who “always plays fair with the reader” by including clues that can lead an alert reader (in theory, at least) to the solution. Since I’ve had recent encounters with authors (including a celebrated one known for his lady detective) who don’t bother to play fair in this way (or sometimes even solve the mystery!), this whetted my curiosity immediately.
Sure enough, I was rewarded by a Bombay-based mystery story from 1974, featuring a puzzle that resisted solution, but further enriched by the depiction of the human limitations and stresses of the main character, Inspector Ghote, both on the job and in his marriage. In this volume, Inspector Ghote is reassigned to a special, elite group, the Black Money and Transactions Squad, or BATS, whose mission is to catch tax evaders. (The drain from tax revenues of hidden income--so-called “Black Money”--continues to be a hot political issue in India today.) Ghote’s secret assignment, and an exceptionally difficult one at that, is to ferret out a member of the BATS who is apparently tipping off the tax evaders before the squad members can catch them with their illegal funds.
It happens that on the domestic front, Inspector Ghote is also preoccupied by bats. Ever since his neighbor, a fellow police officer, shooed a large number of these flying, dog-faced mammals off his property, the bats have settled on a tree top over Ghote’s home, distressing his wife, who wants Ghote to drive them away.
Sure enough, an especially alert reader might spot the clue that gives away the solution, but it’s Inspector Ghote’s humanity, as much as the puzzle to be solved, that makes this an enjoyable read.
By Tom Rachman
6/1/11
Rachman offers both comedy and pathos in this novel about an English language newspaper published in Rome (a fictional doppelganger of the International Herald Tribune). The novel actually consists of a series of related short stories, each having as the main character a different person connected with the newspaper. Although the stories (and characters) are contemporary, each story is followed by a brief vignette that together, sequentially trace the newspaper’s history and vicissitudes beginning with its founding in the early 1950’s. Thus, in addition to going into depth about these contemporary characters, the author offers a complete backstory of the newspaper. Each story/chapter, by the way, has as its title the title of a news story that appeared in the paper at the time that the chapter happened.
Overall, this piece-by-piece construction of a novel left me with a deep feeling for the novel’s central character, the newspaper. Some of the individual stories are artful and fascinating but others struck me as readable but ho-hum, suggesting that the author is no less an imperfectionist than his characters. I was particularly taken by “Europeans are Lazy, Study Shows”, while tells of the love life of Hardy Benjamin, the business reporter; “The Sex Lives of Islamic Extremists”, which is memorable for its parodic portrait of a veteran swashbuckling correspondent who specializes in covering wars and terror groups in the line of fire, but is now reduced to competing for a humble stringer position in Cairo (this was even more fun because my wife and I spent time in the same streets and eateries in Cairo’s Zamalek neighborhood where this story takes place); and most of “Markets Crash Over Fears of China Slowdown”, which touchingly depicts an unlikely romantic encounter between the paper’s chief financial officer and a copy editor, whom she just played a key role in laying off. If what I’ve described piques your interest, avanti!
Bats Fly Up for Inspector Ghote
By H.R.F. Keating
6/14/11
It was one of those leads that I get from reading the obituaries: a celebrated British mystery writer, known for his series featuring Inspector Ghote, a policeman in Bombay. The obit praised Keating as an old-fashion writer who “always plays fair with the reader” by including clues that can lead an alert reader (in theory, at least) to the solution. Since I’ve had recent encounters with authors (including a celebrated one known for his lady detective) who don’t bother to play fair in this way (or sometimes even solve the mystery!), this whetted my curiosity immediately.
Sure enough, I was rewarded by a Bombay-based mystery story from 1974, featuring a puzzle that resisted solution, but further enriched by the depiction of the human limitations and stresses of the main character, Inspector Ghote, both on the job and in his marriage. In this volume, Inspector Ghote is reassigned to a special, elite group, the Black Money and Transactions Squad, or BATS, whose mission is to catch tax evaders. (The drain from tax revenues of hidden income--so-called “Black Money”--continues to be a hot political issue in India today.) Ghote’s secret assignment, and an exceptionally difficult one at that, is to ferret out a member of the BATS who is apparently tipping off the tax evaders before the squad members can catch them with their illegal funds.
It happens that on the domestic front, Inspector Ghote is also preoccupied by bats. Ever since his neighbor, a fellow police officer, shooed a large number of these flying, dog-faced mammals off his property, the bats have settled on a tree top over Ghote’s home, distressing his wife, who wants Ghote to drive them away.
Sure enough, an especially alert reader might spot the clue that gives away the solution, but it’s Inspector Ghote’s humanity, as much as the puzzle to be solved, that makes this an enjoyable read.
March 24, 2010
Keating is one of those authors that I really can't predict. He wrote one of my top reads of 2009, but also one of my worst reads. This one is in the middle, but more towards the top.
Inspector Ghote is chosen for a new assignment. He is recruited for the Black-money and Allied Transactions Squad, who investigate illegal transactions designed to circumvent income tax or import fees. There are some big sums at stake, involving shiploads of illicit gold. But twice in a row, when the squad goes to make a big arrest, someone has tipped the crooks off before they get there.
So who's the informer? Ghote's real job is to find out. As his time with the squad increases, he finds himself suspecting everyone. There are only 5 men on the squad. Who can be trusted? Ghote's instincts tell him to trust no one, but that attitude starts seeping into everything he does, even with his wife and young son. He'd better hurry up and solve this case before he loses it all.
I liked this one a lot, but I didn't love it as much as Under a Monsoon Cloud last year. This one doesn't have quite as strong a feeling of place. It would have helped also to read this one first, as it rather was rather spoiled by knowing that one of the characters was innocent, since he was in a later book. If you do want to read the series - and good luck, they are out of print but worth searching for - read this one before Under a Monsoon Cloud. Highly recommended.
Inspector Ghote is chosen for a new assignment. He is recruited for the Black-money and Allied Transactions Squad, who investigate illegal transactions designed to circumvent income tax or import fees. There are some big sums at stake, involving shiploads of illicit gold. But twice in a row, when the squad goes to make a big arrest, someone has tipped the crooks off before they get there.
So who's the informer? Ghote's real job is to find out. As his time with the squad increases, he finds himself suspecting everyone. There are only 5 men on the squad. Who can be trusted? Ghote's instincts tell him to trust no one, but that attitude starts seeping into everything he does, even with his wife and young son. He'd better hurry up and solve this case before he loses it all.
I liked this one a lot, but I didn't love it as much as Under a Monsoon Cloud last year. This one doesn't have quite as strong a feeling of place. It would have helped also to read this one first, as it rather was rather spoiled by knowing that one of the characters was innocent, since he was in a later book. If you do want to read the series - and good luck, they are out of print but worth searching for - read this one before Under a Monsoon Cloud. Highly recommended.
September 6, 2014
I've read at least six Ghote novels, some of them two or three times over 30 years. This one stands out in memory for especially for its insights into the Inspector's home life. All are enthralling to read. I read somewhere that the author never lived in India, yet his Indian diction sounds just right. The strength of these books is the rueful comedy and the character of Ghote: upright, proud and humble, fallible, admirable yet as far from priggish as from thuggish. He's always getting assignments that no one would would want to do and no one else would accept.
P.S. I hope he gets promoted someday, but he's probably better in the field.
Jump into any Ghote novel you can find.
P.S. I hope he gets promoted someday, but he's probably better in the field.
Jump into any Ghote novel you can find.
June 10, 2015
I enjoyed the previous Inspector Ghote books but not this one. The story meandered and did not hold my attention. The Potentially interesting elements were not fleshed out. Ghote's flaws as a character were introduced but not effectively resolved. The only redeeming feature of this book is that Simon Dastor, who reads the audio version, is excellent.
January 8, 2016
Another good inspector Ghote story. Well worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews