Rating: 4 stars (Spotlight Review)
Vish Puri, the owner of Most Private Investigators Ltd., spends much of his time investigating prospective brides and grooms for any signs of hanky-panky that could ruin an arranged marriage. Though his Pre-Matrimonial Five Star Comprehensive Service is certainly popular, this is not the extent of his abilities. Vish Puri is a skilled master of disguise and deduction; when he is hired to locate a missing and presumed dead servant he employs all his skills, and some of his employee's skills to locate the girl before a high official is blamed for her death.
Known as Chubby to his family, and The Boss to his employees, Puri follows in the deductive footsteps of his guru, Chanakaya, who was using these skills thousands of years before Sherlock Holmes. Puri considers himself to be a consummate artist and so leaves no stone unturned in his quest. When a public litigator comes to him for help, Puri jumps in with both feet. A maidservant has been missing for months, and someone has fingered the litigator as the girl's murderer. Unfortunately for Chubby, one of his previous cases seems to have angered someone, and they are now taking shots at him in the rooftop garden. In the middle of a murder case and a matrimonial stake-out, Chubby must also do his best to dodge bullets and watch his own mother, who has a detective's eye herself.
This book is most certainly a new direction for this genre and I think it's worked out quite well. Vish Puri is an adorably pompous little man who's bravery is only topped by his love of fried, fatty food. He dodges bullets and chases murderers and yet he is still helpless when facing down his wife and his mother.
Hall has brought India to life in all its beauty and squalor. His descriptive ability is profound and yet, despite the seriousness of the plot, he keeps it lighthearted with almost perfect dialogue and humor. This is the first book about Vish Puri but I hope it won't be the last.
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 2, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416583688
ISBN-13: 978-1416583684