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.

First published in 1975, A Remarkable Case of Burglary tells the tale of Val Leary, handsome, charming and broke. On the morning of April Fools' Day, while walking through one of London's wealthiest districts, he notices a young maidservant scrubbing the steps of 53 Northbourne Park Villas. In that instant he conceives the idea for a remarkable case of burglary.
The set-up seems perfect, but chance intervenes in a succession of coincidences that continue to fox the team of would-be thieves.
Set in the Upstairs, Downstairs world of Victorian England, this is an ingenious and gripping tale by the acknowledged master of the English crime novel.