A body without organs and Inspector Ghote with a mission - but no clues. H.R.F. Keating's Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg is published with an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, in Penguin Modern Classics.

In a small, provincial town in the heart of India, a politician's wife died under suspicious circumstances. That the corpse and the trail have been cold for fifteen years hasn't saved Inspector Ghote of the Bombay CID from being sent to investigate. But what chance does he have when his chief suspect is so powerful, when the whole district is against him, and when a holy man is fasting to the death to protest his prying? But still the good inspector dutifully goes, carrying just the honour of his police force and a box of double-sized eggs ...

H. R. F. Keating (1926-2011) was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex. He went to Merchant Taylors, leaving early to work in the engineering department of the BBC. After a period of service in the army, which he describes as 'totally undistinguished', he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he became a scholar in modern languages. He was also the crime books reviewer for The Times for fifteen years. His first novel about Inspector Ghote, The Perfect Murder, won the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers Association and an Edgar Allen Poe Special Award. His other works in Penguin Modern Classics include Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg, Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, and Under a Monsoon Cloud: An Inspector Ghote Mystery.

If you enjoyed Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg, you might like Keating's Under a Monsoon Cloud: An Inspector Ghote Mystery.

'Keating has a long-established winner in his sympathetic and lively hero, and this is one of his most enjoyable cases'
The Times

'Masterpieces of imagination'
Time

Introduction by: Alexander McCall Smith