A portly Punjabi private eye is on the job
It is a bad thing to compare but, unfortunately, the moment you pick up Tarquin Hall’s The Case of the Missing Servant, Alexander McCall Smith springs to mind. This is because the cover art seems to mimic the style of the immensely lovable No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. So do the font, the layout and the writing style of the first few pages. Even the plot seems very, very familiar — a “Most Private Investigator”, who solves crimes in a hot, humid and exotic country.
Anyway, once you’ve gotten over the whole maine maanga tha Johnny Depp aur tu ne diya Johnny Lever trauma, you start to evaluate the book on its own merit. Vish Puri (as in Wish Granted) is a portly, middle-aged, happily married and determinedly honest Delhi-based detective whose hero is the crafty Chanakya. He solves crimes with the help of a bunch of sidekicks with colourful sobriquets like Tubelight, Handbrake, Flush and the luscious Nepali beauty Facecream. His wife Rumpi worries more about him cheating on his diet than about him being shot dead by enemies. His cases include matrimonial verifications, Gymkhana club member screenings and the occasional missing person.
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