Promotional Information

Acclaimed writer Tarquin Hall makes his fiction debut with an Indian detective story

About the Author

Tarquin Hall is a writer and journalist who has lived and worked in much of South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the US. He is the author of Mercenaries, Missionaries and Misfits- Adventures of an Under-age Journalist; To the Elephant Graveyard; and Salaam Brick Lane- A Year in the New East End. He is married to the journalist Anu Anand and lives in Delhi and London.

Reviews

The most original detective in years. Picture Hercule Poirot with an Indian accent, eating chili pakoras and riding in an auto rickshaw. Tarquin Hall has captured India in a way few Western writers have managed since Kipling. India's humor, commotion and vibrancy bursts from every page, exposing its vast, labyrinthine underbelly. Scintillating!
*Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's House*

A brilliantly written humorous tale that vividly captures the sounds, smells and foibles of modern India
*Ayub Khan Din, writer of East is East*

Lively and quick-paced ... What Cara Black does for Paris, Hall achieves for India
*Kirkus*

Tubby, ingenious and hilarious, Delhi's most trusted PI, Vish Puri, is not easily forgotten. Properly disdainful of unoriginal crime-busters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, his unique methods of detection deserve to be widely known and feted
*David Davidar, author of The Solitude of Emperors*

Entertaining . . . Hall combines an insider's insight with the eclectic eye of a good foreign correspondent . . . The very opposite of the "exoticism" of which this kind of fiction is often accused. Instead of escaping into "another world", western readers are encouraged to see an unflattering reflection of their own values and desires
*Financial Times*

Vish Puri's New Delhi detective agency has never been busier, often doing background checks on persons selected for arranged marriages. With his keen skills of observation and deduction, a network of personal contacts, and some modern communication devices, Punjabi Puri claims to be his country's top detective, citing his Super Sleuth award from the World Federation of Detectives for solving the Case of the Missing Polo Elephant in 1999. (He also has an appetite for pakoras and 30 excess pounds and is known to family and friends as Chubby.) A prominent lawyer who asks Puri to find a missing servant is arrested for the young woman's murder when her body is found, requiring complex work by Puri's staff. Meanwhile, he must check out the squeaky-clean fiance of the granddaughter of a revered war hero. And Puri's visiting Mummy-ji undertakes her own search when her son is shot at. In his fiction debut, British journalist Hall (To the Elephant Graveyard)-who lives in London and New Delhi-captures his second country with grace and humor and creates a protagonist able to put more cases in his "conclusively solved" cabinet. An entertaining start (complete with expletives-included glossary) to a promising series. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 2/1/09; India is hot in the mystery world; in July, St. Martin's is publishing Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup, whose novel Q & A was made into the Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.-Ed.]-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The most original detective in years. Picture Hercule Poirot with an Indian accent, eating chili pakoras and riding in an auto rickshaw. Tarquin Hall has captured India in a way few Western writers have managed since Kipling. India's humor, commotion and vibrancy bursts from every page, exposing its vast, labyrinthine underbelly. Scintillating! -- Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's House
A brilliantly written humorous tale that vividly captures the sounds, smells and foibles of modern India -- Ayub Khan Din, writer of East is East
Lively and quick-paced ... What Cara Black does for Paris, Hall achieves for India * Kirkus *
Tubby, ingenious and hilarious, Delhi's most trusted PI, Vish Puri, is not easily forgotten. Properly disdainful of unoriginal crime-busters like Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, his unique methods of detection deserve to be widely known and feted -- David Davidar, author of The Solitude of Emperors
Entertaining . . . Hall combines an insider's insight with the eclectic eye of a good foreign correspondent . . . The very opposite of the "exoticism" of which this kind of fiction is often accused. Instead of escaping into "another world", western readers are encouraged to see an unflattering reflection of their own values and desires * Financial Times *