Bøger af H. R. F. Keating

Agatha Christie was not only the most successful author of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself, giving only the rarest interviews-declining absolutely to become any sort of public figure-and a mystery, too, in the manner in which she achieved her astonishing success. Distinguished crime novelist (and acclaimed critic) H. R. F. Keating brings together a dozen noted writers from both sides of the Atlantic to throw light on the ever-intriguing Dame Agatha. Some essays analyze Christie's art itself; some explain the reasons for her success-not just the books, but also in film and theatre. The myriad of critical angles explored here are penetrating, affectionate, enthusiastic, analytical, and even funny. Together, they give an almost unique insight into the life and work of the First Lady of Crime. Includes essays by Sophie Hannah, H. R. F. Keating, Elizabeth Walter, Julian Symons, Edmund Crispin, Michael Gilbert, Emma Lathen, Colin Watson, Celia Fremlin, Dorothy B. Hughes, J. C. Trewin, Philip Jenkinson, William Weaver, and Christianna Brand.

In the house of Lala Varde, a vast man of even greater influence, an attack has taken place. Varde's secretary, Mr Perfect, has been struck on his invaluable business head. And try as Inspector Ghote might to remain conscientious and methodical, his investigation is beset on all sides by cunning, disdain and corruption. And then there's the impossible theft of a single rupee to be dealt with . . .The Perfect Murder introduced Inspector Ghote: Bombay CID's most dutiful officer, and one of the greatest, most engaging creations in all detective fiction.

Inspector Ghote is sent to Benares sent to investigate the peculiar circumstances surrounding the murder of national treasure Mrs Popatkar. Short on clues, Ghote despairs of finding a solution, but little does he know that every misstep brings him closer to the killer - and the price of solving the case may be more than he is willing to pay .

Newly-promoted Inspector Ghote gets a horrible surprise when he discovers the severed head of his assistant, stuffed in his office rubbish bin. Who would want to kill a lowly peon? And why would they plant the evidence in the heart of the Bombay Police Crime Branch? Ghote's ready to investigate - but his new boss has other ideas .

This novel, set in Victorian London in its heyday, presents a picture, both horrific and authentic, of the ''underside'' of life in the first city of the world. It tells of Godfrey Mann, a young painter, who has access to the golden world of privilege and yet is possessed by a compelling sexual drive towards the hidden squalor and darkness below, a nostalgie de la boue that wars tumultuously both with his ideals as an artist and his love for the lion-couraged social reformer, Elizabeth. It is between Godfrey''s reckless urges and Elizabeth''s purity that truth must ultimately lie. And in working out this conflict of opposites, the story, though placed in an age whose fixed moral structure contrasts so forcibly with our permissiveness, has a meaning for today. Here are ''scenes from Victorian life'' that will not be quickly forgotten. There are vignettes of the elegance of the upper side, as ornately formal in its social routines as in the sheer magnificence of its horses and carriages and opulent settings. There is the underside with its appealing sexuality, violence and open putrescence. There is, above all, the mingling of the two in a brilliantly brought to life picture or the whole rich, riotous, bawdy assembly of a Victorian Derby Day. It is compulsive story-telling, handled with the cool detachment and lucidity which in other fields have brought H.R.F. Keating a wide readership.

First published in 1978, this is a London where the worst has happened. There have been riots, huge uncontrolled fires, outbreaks of savage looting, artillery battles, mass flights. The great city lies three parts deserted, open to marauding gangs and beast-wild individuals, its highways and landmarks tumbled like ruined temples. To Mark, comparatively safe up in less troubled Highgate, there comes a message that his estranged wife is dying over in Wimbledon, right across on the far side of the dangerous bowl of the devastated city. Reluctant almost to sticking-point, he sets out to go to her. His journey is a story of adventure through the ruins. His immediate business is the simple one of pressing on through all the debris, always driven because he knows that Jasmine will die soon. He may never get there: he may be killed by idiotic accident, torn to pieces by the packs of wild dogs, trapped in one of the communes that within their stockades have established their own ruthlessly puritanical disciplines. But the difficulties and the dangers teach him lessons as he struggles onwards. He learns from the past. If it was drink, drugs and the dolce vita that had done for his wife, had not something similar destroyed the city too? He learns about the present amid its hazards. And he learns, as he comes at last to the bleak end of his Iong walk, lessons for a just possible future.

First published in 1975, A Remarkable Case of Burglary tells of Val Leary, who is handsome, charming and broke. On the morning of April Fools' Day 1871, while walking through one of London's wealthiest districts, he notices a young maidservant scrubbing the steps of 53 Northbourne Park Villas. In that instant he conceives the idea for a remarkable case of burglary. The set-up seems perfect, but chance intervenes in a succession of coincidences that place the jewels further and further beyond the reach of Val and his cronies - until... Set in the Upstairs, Downstairs world of Victorian England, this is an ingenious and gripping tale by the acknowledged master of the English crime novel.

Jack Stallworthy is a bad detective just on the right side of corrupt. But now he's turning criminal...Detective Sergeant Jack Stallworthy has been accepting backhanders for most of his career. And why not? He's spent thirty years putting villains behind bars, surely he's entitled to a little nest-egg?Lily, the pretty wife he dearly loves, dreams of retirement on the tropical island Ko Samui, but Jack will happily settle for a bungalow in Devon. Until, that is, influential businessman Emslie Warnaby offers him paradise on a plate. All he has to do is steal one slim file from the Fraud Investigation office at police HQ. But soon Jack Stallworthy is dangerously out of his depth...

A delegation of visiting firemen arrives at Southampton, greeted by a stagecoach which carries a reception committee in early 19th century costume. This Old English greeting has been arranged between their president, Foster P. Schelemberger, and George Hamyadis, the flamboyant travel agent who is handling all the details of their visit to Britain. During an overnight stop in Winchester, Hamyadis reveals his plan for a little surprise to entertain the delegates during the journey to London the next day. But the surprise, when it comes, turns out to be a very grim one indeed - especially for Hamyadis...

In the rough, tough world where predatory young beauty queens compete fiercely for money, a murder is committed. Police Constable Peter Lassington is soon enmeshed in a complicated mystery - a mystery made more than usually exotic by the acreage of young feminine flesh that is continuously on show at the Star Bowl ballroom, rehearsing for the contest at which the St. Valentine prizes will be awarded. Lassington's superior, the officer in charge of the case, is Superintendent Ironside. Ironside - polite, sophisticated, devious - is somewhat sceptical about the charms of the young ladies: his thoughts roam forward to his imminent retirement. This detective novel is carefully plotted and firmly set in a world of bizarre values - values that do not appeal to Ironside, the most striking police detective to appear in fiction for some time. The naked competition of the adolescent beauty queens provides the background to a strange and exciting murder novel, with a surprise ending.

An independent island state in the North Atlantic has fallen under the sway of Rolph Mylchraine, a landowner who has gained ascendancy by stage-managing witchcraft orgies and purveying cheap liquor. Opposing him is Keig, a peasant of extraordinary physical strength who gradually emerges leader on the grand scale. Through their developing struggle, which becomes a guerrilla war in the classic mould, echoes the sombre theme of the fatal tendency of power to corrupt. Mr Keating, already acknowledged as a writer of distinguished crime novels, has produced at perhaps the height of his powers a book that is not only a new departure for himself but also genuinely original.

It's not often a Nobel Prize winner gets murdered...on your patch...very likely by a member of your own family. DCI Phil Benholme has the reputation for being a little soft because he tries to see both sides of every story. And if he hadn't on this occasion, the murder of Professor Unwala - Nobel Prize winner of 1945 - would have been recorded as a tragic accident. Was the elderly man a victim of a violent burglary? Or of a racist assault by Britforce troopers? Or did he know something about the collection of Celtic coins thought to be buried nearby? Clearly Inspector Benholme has a number of leads to follow up. Unfortunately they all point to one person - Conor Benholme. What does a 'soft cop' do when his teenage son is also his prime suspect?