Book Review: The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall (Vish Puri #1)

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This is the first book in the Vish Puri series and I unfortunately read it after I had read The Case of the Love Commandos. Had I read it before I would have been even more favourably inclined towards the author. To cut a long story short, this is a much more lovable book then the previous one and something gives me a feeling that all the other ones after this, as wel.. So without much ado, here is what I thought of the plot, characters and the writing in the book, "The Case of the Missing Servant".

A servant goes amiss and the employer- an upright lawyer in Rajasthan- is charged with her murder. When our hero, 'the' Vish Puri of Most Private Investigators starts on the job, he has nothing to go on with. The lawyer's wife and others in the household can't help him beyond the missing servant's name. They did not know where she came from and of course where had she mysteriously disappeared to. The only thing he finds in the servant quarter that she occupied are some stones. The rest of the book, as you can well imagine, is devoted to how he manages to get the lawyer off the hook.

But..but..but...there are other interesting things happening in the story and that is what impressed me. While Vish Puri is engaged in this case, he is fired upon. His mother (less annoying in this book) solves this bit. He is also hired by an Army officer of old who wants him to run a check on his grand daughter's fiancee and give him something to call off the wedding. While doing this we are given a better and a more rounded picture of who and why Vish Puri is what and how he is. His family- wife and daughters- also are introduced.

We meet the characters that form his core team- Handbreak, Doorstop, FaceCream and his secretary Madam Rani- with their back stories which are very interesting and also show the author's understanding of the Indian milieu.

All in all a great read, especially if you like all the questions answered.

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