The Perfect Murder

I was happily introduced to Inspector Ghote in the pages of Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, so decided to try this title. Glad I did - the characterization was hilarious and the challenges and frustrations faced by Inspector Ghote evoked my sympathy. Although the story line lagged in places, and the solving of the mystery involved listening to a few fruitless conversations in the story, it was definitely an enjoyable journey to get to the solution. And the narration was excellent! I would recommend this listen if you are in the mood for trying something a little out of the usual.

This is a wordy and overwritten book of very little mystery, with a narrator who makes a singsong attempt at Indian accents that makes them all sound the same. Its redeeming qualities are a somewhat endearing detective and some local color prose. But they're not enough to rescue the book.

I was looking for a new detective series to listen to and thought I would give this one a try. The story was just silly and the characters are flimsy and quite stereotypical. Worse yet is the narrator. Very annoying, especially the Swedish UNESCO character. I felt I was being yelled at through most of the story. This was the first in the series, there are quite a few, so maybe they get better. I recommend skipping this one.