Bribery, Corruption Also

by H.R.F. Keating

Book Overview

Indian Inspector Ghote accompanies his wife to Calcutta to claim an inheritance and are faced with a frustrating legal maze and a corrupt city. Grave danger threatens Ghote before he can discover the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312205023
• ISBN13: 9780312205027
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

"Life on earth is a fight."

Inspector Ganesh Ghote of the Bombay Police Headquarters and his Bengali wife, Protima, are traveling to Calcutta, where Mrs. Ghote was born. Mrs. Ghote is about to claim her inheritance, a large house that was bequeathed to her by a "cousin-uncle." While their taxi driver attempts to navigate the crowded streets of the city, Inspector Ghote is overwhelmed by the noise and revelry of a religious festival in progress. He is instantly put off by the "utter lack of restraint" of the populace. Although he is on temporary leave from his job, Ghote worries that his enthusiastic wife will urge him to retire so that they can live in Calcutta permanently. She claims that Calcutta is a more civilized place than Bombay, with less crime and corruption. When Protima and Ghote arrive at the residence they are planning to occupy, they are stunned. It is a "battered, eaten away ruin," "a sadly dilapidated mansion," inhabited by squatters. Nor are they reassured by the lawyer who summoned them, Mr. A. K. Dutt-Dastar. He wears wrap-around sunglasses and is too slick by half. He urges Protima to sell her property and return with the money to Bombay. However, she has her heart set on reliving the happy days of her youth in her dream home. What follows is nothing short of a nightmare for the naïve couple. They are about to learn some unpleasant lessons about how business is conducted in this harsh place. To their woe, the Ghotes learn that Calcutta is no better than Bombay when it comes to graft and criminal behavior. As a trained detective, Ghote dutifully tries to uncover the details of what appears to be a plot to steal Protima's inheritance. Ghote, a good and honest man, valiantly tries to stand up for his wife. However, he may be unequal to the powerful forces arrayed against him. "Bribery, Corruption Also" is a colorful and atmospheric study of a city where dishonesty is a way of life. When money changes hands, one character states, "the work gets done. The world continues." He continues, "Yes, Inspector, corruption is necessary." Keating is a skillful descriptive writer who brings to life a city of contrasts--new vs. old, wealth vs. horrifying squalor. This is not a feel-good story, although it is, for the most part, free of violence. It is a cynical look at how newspapers, governments, police departments, and other organizations, whose mission ostensibly is to serve the public, instead serve themselves. Although the book is at times talky and repetitious, the author makes us care about Ganesh and Protima's quest. Each character is vividly portrayed and Keating makes no effort to soften a message that may be as relevant today as it has ever been: When people care only about themselves, civilization is headed for decay.

Inspector Ghote and his wife in retirement.

For about forty years, English writer and critic H R F Keating has been mining the rich vein of gentle humor and rickety policing that the rest of the world associates with the culture of Bombay and other parts of India. His police officer is Inspector Ghote. At the time he initiated his series of 21 Inspector Ghote books, Keating had never set foot in India. I am not sure whether he has since explored the real India he has so well evoked in his fiction. ?Bribery, Corruption Also? dates from Keating?s early seventies. Inspector Ghote, once pedaling a bicycle to investigate crime, is now being driven around Calcutta searching for a house his wife has inherited. If time and action move slowly in his other Ghote books, they amble at an even slower pace here. Expect leisurely narrative rather than cliffhangers on every page. Expect only one minor murder rather than serial killings. And expect Anglo-Indian dialogue such as this: ?We are knowing you now. No need for more concealings.?Since other useful reviewers have outlined the book?s plot, I have instead tried to convey the mellow flavor and gentle tempo of a reading experience that has provided me with many hours of enjoyment.

Well done Inspector Ghote tale

Inspector Ghote loves doing police work in his beloved Bombay. Still, when his wife Protima inherits a luxurious home in Calcutta, the pair discusses his retirement and their moving away from Bombay. However, upon seeing the home, Protima's childhood memories of that house quickly shatter as the home is in utter disrepair and squatters occupy it. Their attorney suggests they sell the pink elephant as quickly as they can to get it off their hands. To Ghote and Protima's shock, a buyer surfaces almost immediately. Perhaps, it is his work that makes Ghote immediately suspicious of the sudden appearance of a buyer. He begins to investigate, only to place himself and Protima in danger by a conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of the local government. The latest Inspector Ghote mystery is an entertaining tale that seems too simple for one of the genre's great police officers. The story line concentrates on layer after layer of bribery and corruption that Ghote with his spouse uncovers, sort of like peeling an artichoke. The tale is enjoyable because of the rich insight into Calcutta, but the prime plot never quite hovers more than a few feet off the ground. Still, award winning author H.R.J. Keating will please fans of the series with the latest entry that places Protina more in the spotlight than usual.Harriet Klausner