THE BODY IN THE BILLIARD ROOM

Inspector Ghote, whose cases usually take him into the slightly mean streets of contemporary Bombay, is now sent on special assignment to the quaint, Raj-style hill-town of ""Ooty"" (Ootacamund)--where he's supposed to solve an old-fashioned murder mystery in the manner of Great Detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. A servant at the Ooty Club has been found dead on the billiard table, stabbed; the weapon is missing--and so are silver cups from the Club's trophy case. But, while the local police are convinced that it's a simple case of robbery, old Surinder Mehta--the town's most prestigious citizen and a passionate Agatha Christie fan--is sure that this must be a classic ""Golden Age"" puzzle. And he expects Ghote (who's never read Dame A.) to perform in dazzling Poirot style. Ghote plods instead, of course--as he interviews the five Club residents who might have been the servant's blackmail victims: a philandering Maharajah and his equally adulterous Maharani; an aged Memsahib; a cheery, fat Moslem; and a mild professor. Eventually, however, after going into ""the tree Great Detective's trance,"" timid Ghote does come up with the right answers--even if they're far from plausible and only faintly clever. As mystery, then, this is neither a Golden Age delight nor (like Keating's best) a semi-modern standout. But, as leisurely, low-key parody, it's always pleasant and occasionally droll--with Ghote's amusing first stab at golf, his continuing quest for yoga serenity, and lots of in-jokey references to classic crime-literature.