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Inspector Ghote, 'one of the great creations of detective fiction' (Alexander McCall Smith), reluctantly becomes India's answer to Hercule Poirot when he's summoned to solve a mysterious murder worthy of Agatha Christie herself in this classic mystery - with a brand-new introduction by bestselling author Vaseem Khan. Inspector Ganesh Ghote of the Bombay CID is flattered when he's expressly summoned by a former ambassador, Surinder Mehta, to investigate a mysterious murder in the faraway hill show more station of Ootacamund. A body has been found on the billiard table at the genteel Ooty Club, a gathering place for well-to-do Indians and Englishmen - and the influential Mehta believes that only Ghote will be able to solve the crime. On arrival, Ghote discovers, to his dismay, that Mehta, an aging crime buff steeped in classic British mysteries, believes him to be a Great Detective, with powers of deduction second only to Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot. Ghote, trapped unwillingly in a second-rate detective story, decides that the only way to end this charade is to solve the case. But as he interrogates the motley group of suspects, his unreliable Watson spouting increasingly wild pet theories, he begins to despair of ever discovering the truth . . . show lessTags
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Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID has been sent, ordered really, to a quiet resort town in the mountains to investigate a murder. When he arrives, he find that a former British ambassador named Mehta is convinced that Ghote will wrap this all up in no time, just like in his favorite detective stories. Ghote soon tires of being compared to Sri Poirot and Sri Holmes. He does not feel himself to be a 'great detective' and he knows that real life is not like in books.
Just as indicated by the title, a body has been discovered on the billiard room of a private club. This is not the sort of place where people are used to this thing happening. Mehta has come up with a list of suspects, including a professor who is an expert on crime novels, a show more Maharajah and his Maharanee. Ghote feels quite out of his element here.
I really enjoyed this book. I liked Inspector Ghote and thought the other characters were well done. The narrator had a tough job getting all the accents and names right, but he did such a great job that I checked the package more than once to make sure that there really was only one reader. The book was very funny in places too. show less
Just as indicated by the title, a body has been discovered on the billiard room of a private club. This is not the sort of place where people are used to this thing happening. Mehta has come up with a list of suspects, including a professor who is an expert on crime novels, a show more Maharajah and his Maharanee. Ghote feels quite out of his element here.
I really enjoyed this book. I liked Inspector Ghote and thought the other characters were well done. The narrator had a tough job getting all the accents and names right, but he did such a great job that I checked the package more than once to make sure that there really was only one reader. The book was very funny in places too. show less
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83+ Works 3,205 Members
H. R. F. Keating (Henry Reymond Fitzwalter "Harry" Keating) was born in St. Leonards-on-Sea on October 31, 1926. He attended Merchant Taylor's School in London, England and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He worked for The Times (London) as the crime books reviewer from 1967 to 1983. His first novel, Death and the Visiting Firemen, was show more published in 1959. He wrote about 50 fiction and nonfiction works during his lifetime, but is best known for the Inspector Ghote series. His other works include the Harriet Martens Mysteries series and Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World. Keating received the CWA Gold Dagger Award in 1964 for The Perfect Murder and in 1980 for The Murder of the Maharajah, the Edgar Alan Poe award in 1988, the George N. Dove Award in 1995, and the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding service to crime fiction in 1996. He died of cardiac failure on March 27, 2011 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Un Cadáver en el Billar
- Original title
- The Body in the Billiard Room
- Original publication date
- 1987
- Important places
- Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu, India
- Original language*
- Inglés
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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Statistics
- Members
- 88
- Popularity
- 365,096
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.43)
- Languages
- English, French, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 3
