Enjoyed this though it was not as funny as the book jacket and reviews had led me to believe.
Recommended for fans of cozie and mysteries in exotic places.
I will dwfinitely try the next one before making up my mind about the series ( )

Digital audiobook performed by Sam Dastor
3.5***

From the book jacket: Meet Vish Puri, India’s most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India’s swindlers, cheats, and murderers. In hot and usty Delhi, 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.

My reactions:
This debut novel was just delightful! Puri is a marvelous character, and I want to follow the series just to get to know him better. But the supporting cast is also wonderful. From “Mummy-ji” (his mother, who insists on playing sleuth when “everyone” knows mummies are not detectives), to his undercover operatives: Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream.

While the main storyline focuses on the missing Mary, there are other issues Puri and his team must deal with – WHO is taking potshots at Puri and his chili plants? As the team travels from the swanky Gymkhana Club to the slums of Dehli, and from a desert oasis to a distant mine, the reader gets a view of modern-day India that is colorfully vivid.

I’ll definitely read more from this author.

Sam Dastor does a very good job of narrating the audiobook. I love the accents he used for Puri, Mummy-ji and the other characters. ( )

There is definitely a case for comparing Vish Puri to Precious Ramotswe, or at least Tarquin Hall to Alexander McCall Smith. Set in sprawling, crowded yet somehow charming India, this mystery introduces the reader to a capable detective with an extensive network of colourful colleagues (with equally colourful nicknames) who travel the length and breadth of the country to discover the truth about a servant who appears to have been murdered by her master. It is a relatively simple story with a straightforward narrative, filled to the brim with colloquial turns of phrase and quirky characters. India is vaguely known as a land of hierarchies and corruption, and all of this is on display here, though the protagonist valiantly attempts to stay within the boundaries of a distinct moral code, all the while cognizant of the realities of the bureaucracy to which he is bound. Tarquin Hall does indeed do for India what McCall Smith has done for Botswana. It is a lovely, readable story, and I look forward to discovering the further adventures of the Most Private Detective. ( )

Agréable (et un brin complexe) multi enquête de l'auto-défini meilleur détective indien. ( )

This is a charming little mystery, featuring Vish Puri - nicknamed Chubby, fifty-one years old, portly, and very Punjabi - and his motley bunch of curiously nicknamed assistants investigating the disappearance of a maid servant in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The writing captures the punjabi-ness of Mr. Puri and his family, though a bit stereotypical, and the changing face of Delhi and the National Capital Region humourously.
Though the mystery itself is not very deep and the end seems rushed, the narrative is lifted up by the author's use of language. The side story of the detective's Mummy playing detective on her own is amusing.
I feel that this novel, being the first of a series, functions as an introduction to the main characters and builds up the interest towards the subsequent ones. Well, I'm interested enough to read the next one... ( )