Vish Puri Mysteries

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 centers 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. "Sam Dastor portrays Puri as the likable detective he is: a man of conviction who is attached to his family and who is dismayed by the 'progress' occurring in his beloved India." "Great fun-a seething slice of the sub-continent." "India, captured in all its pungent, vivid glory, fascinates almost as much as the crime itself." "Entertaining…Hall combines an insider's insight with the eclectic eye of a good foreign correspondent." "Hall… marshal[es] details to create a sense of what everyday life is like in Delhi: the smell of chai and kachoris seems to waft from the page, as indeed does the stench of political corruption." "A delightful mix of the exotic and familiar…An excellent, delightfully humorous mystery with an unforgettable cast of characters…[that] joins the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency as representing the best in international cozies." "India's Most Private Investigator uses stealth, cunning, and above all discretion to turn the tables on a killer…in this lively and quick-paced series debut."

Another adventure of the Indian detective Vish Puri, "a man as fussy as Poirot and every bit as clever" (AudioFile). Murder is no laughing matter. Yet a prominent Indian scientist dies in a fit of giggles when a Hindu goddess appears from a mist and plunges a sword into his chest. The only one laughing now is the main suspect, a powerful guru named Maharaj Swami, who seems to have done away with his most vocal critic. Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator, master of disguise and lover of all things fried and spicy, doesn't believe the murder is a supernatural occurrence. But proving who really killed Dr. Suresh Jha will require all the detective's earthly faculties. To get at the truth, he and his team of undercover operatives-Facecream, Tubelight, and Flush-travel from the slum where India's hereditary magicians must be persuaded to reveal their secrets to the holy city of Haridwar on the Ganges. How did the murder weapon miraculously crumble into ash? Will Maharaj Swami have the last laugh? And, perhaps more important, why is Puri's wife, Rumpi, chasing petty criminals with his own mother when she should be at home making his lunch? Stopping only to indulge his ample Punjabi appetite, Puri uncovers a web of spirituality, science, and sin that is unique in the annals of crime. "Narrator Sam Dastor slips in and out of Indian accents that represent all classes, castes, and personalities…He's hilarious as Puri's Mummy-ji and his wife, Rumpi…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award." "[A] funny, entertaining novel...The characters-including members of Puri's complicated family-are splendid, and it's a joy to read." "Delightful…Hall splendidly evokes the color and bustle of Delhi streets and the tang of contemporary India." "Modern India, in all its colorful squalor, provides a vivid backdrop for this well-crafted whodunit." "Hall has an unerring ear for the vagaries of Indian English, the Indian penchant for punning acronyms, peculiarly Indian problems...and an obvious affection for India, warts and all."

Tarquin Hall's irresistible protagonist, private investigator Vish Puri, has become an international favorite through a series that splendidly evokes the color and bustle of Delhi and the tang of contemporary India" (Seattle Times). Now the gormandizing, spectacularly mustachioed sleuth finds himself facing down his greatest fears in an explosive case involving the Indian and Pakistani mafias. When the elderly father of a top Pakistani cricketer playing in the multimillion-dollar Indian Premier League dies during a postmatch dinner, it's not a simple case of Delhi Belly. His butter chicken has been poisoned. To solve the case, Puri must penetrate the region's organized crime, following a trail that leads deep into Pakistan-the country in which many members of the PI's family were massacred during the 1947 partition of India. The last piece of the puzzle, however, turns up closer to home when Puri learns of the one person who can identify the killer. Unfortunately it is the one woman in the world with whom he has sworn never to work: his mother, Mummy-ji. "India, captured in all its pungent, vivid glory, fascinates almost as much as the crime itself." "Outstanding third mystery…Well drawn, colorful characters bolster a whodunit sure to appeal to those who enjoy a dash of humor with their crime." "Hall has a gift for conveying the rich stew of competing cultures in contemporary India with a wonderful economy of image…Hall presents a complex hero in a complex country with a great deal of history, humor, and panache."

In this contemporary Romeo and Juliet story set within India's caste system, private investigator Vish Puri faces his most difficult challenge to date-a high-stakes mystery involving one of India's most controversial commodities: love. When Ram and Tulsi fall in love, the young woman's parents are dead-set against the union. She is from a high-caste family, but her boyfriend is an untouchable from the lowest strata of Indian society. Young Tulsi's father locks her up and promises to hunt down and kill the "lover boy dog." Fortunately, India's Love Commandos, a real-life group of volunteers dedicated to helping mixed-caste couples, come to the rescue. They successfully free Tulsi, but Ram has gone missing. The task of finding him falls to India's "most private investigator." Unfortunately, Vish Puri is not having a good month. He has already failed to recover the millions stolen from the First National Bank of Punjab; his wallet has been stolen; and worst of all, his arch rival, investigator Hari Kumar, is also trying to locate Ram. To solve the case and reunite the star-crossed lovers, Puri and his team of misfit assistants must infiltrate Ram's village and navigate the caste politics shaped by millennia-old prejudices. Critics hailed the The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken, the last installment in the Vish Puri Mysteries, as Tarquin Hall's best yet, saying that each book is "more complicated and dangerous than the one before" (Huffington Post). Now, with The Case of the Love Commandos, Hall keeps raising the stakes, delivering more twists, turns, and surprises than ever before. "Hall takes the reader into a very Indian, very Delhi web of spirituality, sin, slums, and power broking, but all treated with a veneer of wit and intelligent absurdity." "As in any Puri novel, a great deal of humor about Puri's family life is mixed with skillful plotting and realistic descriptions of contemporary India's overflowing street life." "Soon, it's a race between the detective and his mum to see who'll be first to see justice done. Once again, India's Most Private Investigator solves his case with panache."

Portly, perceptive, and spectacularly moustachioed, India's finest private detective, Vish Puri, tackles his most difficult case to date, in Tarquin Hall's delightful humorous whodunit series set in New Delhi. For Vish Puri, India's most private detective, the news that he has won the long–coveted International Detective of the Year award, to be presented in a glitzy ceremony in London, makes this the best day of his life. But to his deep dismay, a senior bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance gives him a secret mission he can't refuse: to track down India's most–wanted fugitive. Dr. Bhatt's medicines caused the deaths of hundreds, and the billionaire fraudster-code named the Bombay Duck-fled for the United Kingdom before he could be arrested. Puri is only spending a week in London. He has never set foot in the UK before. And most important of all, he has already promised his wife that he won't do any work while they're away. There's only one solution: lie, lie, lie. Puri dives headfirst into the case, in between visiting all the tourist sites, aided and abetted by his formidable, meddling Mummy-ji, whom Puri definitely did not invite to join them. But can Puri hook the Bombay Duck and bring him to justice before the fugitive's many enemies get to him first? Packed with the sights, sounds, and flavors of both New Delhi and London, this is an irresistible read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Harini Nagendra, and Jesse Sutanto from an author who divides his time between India and the United Kingdom.