The Soft Detective

by H. R. F. Keating

Overview

DCI Phil Benholme has the reputation for being soft because he tries to see both sides of every story.

When Professor Unwala, Nobel Prize winner of 1945, is found dead, Benholme must find the right questions to ask. Was it a tragic accident? Was he 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?

When all leads point to a member of his own family, what will the 'soft cop' do to enforce the concept of innocent until proven guilty?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448202928
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/28/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

H. R. F. Keating was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, in 1926. 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.
H. R. F. Keating was born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, in 1926. 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 described 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.

Editorial Reviews

"Soft as a duck's arse," his sergeant observes of London's Detective Chief Inspector Phil Benholme, although not to his face. When Professor Unwala, an aging scientist who'd won a Nobel Prize in the 1940s, is murdered, Benholme's calm detachment faces a terrible test: his own teenage son emerges as a suspect. Conor Benholme was in the victim's neighborhood but he refuses to provide a credible explanation for his presence there. Inspector Benholme views his son's possible involvement in the murder as a rebuke to his own parenting. Was he too soft a father as Conor grew up? Dutifully reporting Conor to his superiors, Benholme is removed from the case and begins investigating scenarios that would clear the boy. Racism may have figured in the professor's death. A paramilitary group operated in the area. Unwala's late wife, an archeologist, discovered a legendary buried treasure, according to the local rumor mill. Conor's classmates frequented the scene of the murder to buy drugs. Within this solidly plotted story, Keating's compelling personal portraits stand out. Scenes of the police interrogating the teenage suspects are especially gripping. (Oct.) FYI: Keating, awarded the Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger Award for Lifetime Achievement, writes the Inspector Ghote series.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Benholme, of the Barshire CID, is so agonizingly reflective that his ability to see every possible side of even the simplest questions has cost him his marriage as well as a certain amount of respect on the job. True, when the first bulletin of a sudden fatality in Sandymount comes in, it's Benholme's resourceful questioning of the obvious that marks the case as murder. Why would anybody kill an elderly Nobel laureate like Professor Edul Unwala, who was survived by no relatives but an indifferent sister-in-law, and who lived alone except for a vast number of caged mice? Again, Benholme's imagination can produce half a dozen possibilities: racial hatred, the enmity of the neo-fascist Britforce, a search for the legendary Hampton Hoard Unwala's late wife may have had left clues to. But when the evidenceþthe presence of a teenaged boy on the scene, a uniform coat from nearby Harrison Academy, some casually sharp-eyed witnessesþbegins to point toward his own son Conor, Benholme's cursed talent for seeing every side of every issue (perhaps Conor has a simple explanation that's perfectly innocent, perhaps he really was on the scene when Unwala's head was bashed in) provokes his superiors to suspicion, his ex-wife to fury, and Conor to unauthorized leave. Veteran Keating (Asking Questions, 1997, etc.) cunningly draws out the particulars of the simple-seeming case that so vexes Benholme till the startlingly sudden resolution.

Kirkus Reviews