Inspector Ghote Draws a Line (1978)

Blurb:

My review:

Unquestionably the best of the Ghote novels, and, were it not for the early and sadly forgotten The Dog It Was That Died, the author’s masterpiece.  Ghote, posing as research assistant Dr. Ghote, is sent to the heat-sweltering home of Sir Asif Ibrahim, a highly unpopular old judge notorious for condemning the Madurai Conspirators to death shortly before Independence, to protect the old man from death-threats.  Since the Judge does not want police protection, Ghote’s battle of wits with the authority figure is not with the villain, but with the prospective victim—a particularly satisfying device.  In the character of the Judge and his notion of duty, the book stands as one of the best examples of Anthony Berkeley’s maxim of the revelation of character, established in The Second Shot: a concept more easily written about than written.  Nor does the absence of blood and action mean that the novel is without suspense.  The solution is an excellent use of the least likely person, with legitimate misdirection: the author plays on the assumptions of the reader, who, like Ghote, draws the line in the wrong place, thereby demonstrating the danger of rigid thinking, of preconceptions.

To the Bibliography.

To the H.R.F. Keating Page.

To the Grandest Game in the World.

E-mail.