The novel is the first appearance of Keating's serial detective, Inspector Ghote of Mumbai police, in which his investigation of the apparent murder of the Parsi Mr Perfect was assisted informally by the SwedishUNESCO analyst Axel Svensson. The novel, which Keating wrote without ever having been to India,[1] won a Crime Writers' AssociationGold Dagger Award in 1964.[2]
^Tamaya, Meera (1993). H.R.F. Keating: Post-Colonial Detection (A Critical Study). Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 23.