Vish Puri is the head of India’s Most Private Investigations Ltd., where confidentiality is the watchword, and the success rate is 100 percent, in Tarquin Hall’s THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT. Supported by a strong and indomitable cast of women — including his fascinating secretary Elizabeth Rani and his iron-willed Mummy — the company also features a group of delightful assistants nicknamed Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream. It’s kind of like the Indian A-Team as they solve crimes and do background checks, in this endearing first effort in what will hopefully be a series.
Puri disdains comparisons with Sherlock Holmes, but he still considers himself an astute master of the arts of deductive reasoning. But when a man is accused of murdering a servant, and the servant girl has gone missing, all of his powers will be put to the test. The family that employed the girl knew nothing about her but her first name, Mary. And now Puri must find this Mary — last name and origin unknown, no photograph available — in a land that contains one-sixth of the world’s entire population.
Puri’s really a charming character, unable to resist sweets and fatty foods, even though his wife and doctor harass him about it. He takes the fact of being shot at all in stride, dealing with the strict caste system and the ever-present corruption as best he can, working to make a difference in the lives of those around him.
Hall, who is best known for his nonfiction, especially SALAAM BRICK LANE: A YEAR IN THE NEW EAST END, has a silky smooth style, ripe with colorful descriptions and honest dialogue. Puri’s investigative style is logical, thorough and gets results, and the antics of the various sidekicks add to the overall effect, making the team at Most Private Investigations almost a family.
A minor annoyance for some might be the overuse of Indian terminology. The book includes a 14-page glossary which, while informative (did you know “chuddies” is an Indian term for underpants?), provides information on a lot of words used in the story that just seemed unnecessary to include (did Hall really need to mention chuddies at all, as it’s a complete throwaway used only once?).
With that caveat out of the way, it does strike one that Hall has written a novel about today’s India — all the good and bad, the beauty and chaos mixed together — and he’s provided an entertaining character so we can see this country through his eyes. I definitely would look forward to another book in the series. —Mark Rose
