The last detective novel I read about five years ago was "Red Harvest", which had a splendid body-count but not much whodunnit? ;O)

I didn't see the racism in HoD endorsed by Conrad, more his grim amusement in the paradoxes and ironies of people who put heads on palings sneering at the locals. "The Siege of Krishnapur" (J. G. Farrell) is entertainingly satirical in its nods to HoD. It took until page 76 to describe an Indian as a person....;O)