Hot Stage

This is the third outing for Borei Gowda, now promoted to Assistant Commissioner in what he suspects was a sop to dissuade him from airing his dissatisfaction with police susceptibility to political pressure. He is, however, determined to continue to play his accustomed hands-on role in crime prevention, and to ride his motorbike rather than be chauffeured in a government vehicle.
 
His latest case is the death of the irascible Dr Mudgood, a thorn in the side of government, as well as his daughter and her property developer husband. The aggressively atheist Mudgood mocked local politicians for their encouragement of Hindu prejudice, and popular opinion is that this explains his murder.
 
Gowda is, however, not convinced. For one thing, Mudgood occupied a valuable piece of real estate, ripe for development in a city undergoing a computer-based boom. And for another, there are some unusual buildings on part of the site, supposedly a film studio, but with some rather odd features.
 
The arrival of Gowda’s father and then his estranged wife and son divert his attention and also cramp his activities with girlfriend Urmila, who is unimpressed by his failure to make contact for days at a time. In addition, while he has secured a tenant for the upper floor in his house, he’s irritated by the tenant’s apparent interest in his doings.
 
Gowda pursues the case with his usual vigour, assisted by a sizeable team. There are complaints about staff shortage but by western measures he seems very adequately supported. Gowda has brought his drinking problem under control but his idiosyncratic behaviour at times baffles his subordinates although his feats of intuition do impress them.
 
AC Gowda suffers from much that is likely to be familiar to harassed police officers in the west, including the influence of dirty money on politics and even on the police force. The setting is well depicted and the background convincing, giving a strong flavour of the place and time. These elements combine with interesting characters to make Hot Stage an enjoyable read, with Gowda at the centre, very prone to human weakness but with a Holmes-like awareness of vital clues and a tenacity that enables him to make progress with his cases.