The Case of the Missing Servant
Tarquin Hall
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'Great fun' The Times
'The smell of chat and kachoris seems to waft from the page' Daily Telegraph
Meet Vish Puri, India's most private investigator.
Portly, persistent and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swathe through modern India's swindlers, cheats and murderers.
In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centres and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri's main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests.
But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri's resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking pot shots at him and his prize chilli plants? And why is his widowed 'Mummy-ji' attempting to play sleuth when everyone knows Mummies are not detectives?
With his team of undercover operatives - Tubelight, Flush and Facecream - Puri ingeniously combines modern techniques with principles of detection established in India more than two thousand years ago -- long before 'that Johnny-come-lately' Sherlock Holmes donned his Deerstalker.
The search for Mary takes him to the desert oasis of Jaipur and the remote mines of Jharkhand. From his well-heeled Gymkhana Club to the slums where the servant classes live, Puri's adventures reveal modern India in all its seething complexity.
Product Details
About Tarquin Hall
Reviews for The Case of the Missing Servant
Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's House A brilliantly written humorous tale that vividly captures the sounds, smells and foibles of modern India
Ayub Khan Din, writer of East is East Lively and quick-paced ... What Cara Black does for Paris, Hall achieves for India
Kirkus
Tubby, ingenious and hilarious, Delhi's most trusted PI, Vish Puri, is not easily forgotten. Properly disdainful of unoriginal crime-busters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, his unique methods of detection deserve to be widely known and feted
David Davidar, author of The Solitude of Emperors Entertaining . . . Hall combines an insider's insight with the eclectic eye of a good foreign correspondent . . . The very opposite of the "exoticism" of which this kind of fiction is often accused. Instead of escaping into "another world", western readers are encouraged to see an unflattering reflection of their own values and desires
Financial Times
This intriguing book is in essence a modern Indian take on the adventures of Agatha Christie's famous detective Hercule Poirot . . . The detective certainly bears resemblance to his understated Belgian colleague . . . The vibrancy and the vastness of the Indian sub-continent, combined with the appeal of a solid thriller, certainly raise curiosity
Metro Eireann
A seething slice of the sub-continent
The Times
An amusing, timely whodunit ... Hall has woven his impressive knowledge of India into a tautly constructed novel that is a highly readable introduction to the country for newcomers
Guardian
India, captured in all its pungent, vivid glory, fascinates almost as much as the crime itself
Entertainment Weekly
[Hall] captures his second country with grace and humor and creates a protagonist able to put more cases in his "conclusively solved" cabinet. An entertaining start (complete with expletives-included glossary) to a promising series
Library Journal (starred review)