Read between 5th March to 6th March
Edition Details:
Format:Paperback
Page count : 302
Publisher:Arrow books
Series : Vish Puri #1First Sentence:
Vish Puri, founder and managing director of Most Private Investigators ltd sat alone in a room in a guest house in defence colony,south delhi, devouring a dozen green chilli pakoras from a greasy takeaway box.
Vish Puri, owner of the Most Private Investigations Ltd, is one of the best detectives in Delhi. He know it and never shies away from iterating this in front of his prospective clients.
So, when Ajay Kasliwal comes to him with a case then Vish Puri assures him that he’s come to the right man. Ajay Kasliwal is a lawyer in Jaipur who has waged war against corruption and thus has made enemies in upper echelon of power. When his servant Mary suddenly disappears, the people find a perfect opportunity to teach Kasliwal.some lessons for his crusade. A rumour starts getting circulated that Ajay had relationship with this maid and when she got pregnant he got her killed.
Now if Ajay has to prove his innocence Mary needs to be found out. And so Ajay asks Vish Puri to find out Mary.
The problem is there is no picture of Mary,neither was she registers with police before she was kept in service,neither her last name is known. The only thing that’s known is that her name is Mary and she’s has got very dark complexion.
Will Puri be able to solve this case of missing servant??
Also, someone recently tried to shot Puri in his own roof. Puri was lucky to survive the attack. Who was the attacker and why was he attacked?Will Puri be able to find it out.
Apart from these case a brigadier has asked Puri to check on a prospective groom for his grand daughter. Puri has deep respect for the brigadier and wants to make him happy. Will Puri be able to find dirt on this guy to make the brigadier happy?
How will he juggle these three cases?Will he be successful in solving them? And how’ll be solve them?
I loved reading this book. I completed it in one day and usually it takes me two or three days to complete a 300 pages book.
The book had multiple plot lines which was a unique idea. Generally, the books involving Private Detective have a single story and the detective works on solving that particular case which is pretty much unrealistic.
So, i liked this concept as there is a lot of things going on in Vish’s life and this gives a kind of authenticity to the character.
Vish Puri aka Chubby (to his immediate family) is a retired army personnel who runs his own detective agency. Now although this is the first book in the series but this is not Vish Puri’s first case.
The reader meets Vish Puri at a stage where he has already made a name for himself. He has been featured on a cover of magazine and he keeps telling his client about it.
So, as the story progresses the reader gets to know bits and pieces of the previous cases of Vish Puri.
As a character Vish is your typical Delhi guy, he loves his chaat(chilli pakoras and other chaats) and likes to boast about his achievements. Although he loves to speak about himself , this has another effect on people. They form a opinion that he’s a loud mouthed fool.(yeah, reminds you of Poirot, ain’t it.). Also, he’s a family man and has a cheerful vibe around him which makes him more likable in spite of his flaws.
Apart from Vish there are lot of interesting characters in his milieu. There is wife who is more worried about Vish breaking his diet than people shooting him. There is his mother ‘mummyji’ who in spite of all his objections is hell bent of conducting investigation of her own and funnily does a pretty good job of it. Then there are ex raw agents whose help Vish Puri takes from time to time, there are his employees called face-cream,tube-light and door-stopper. There is an interesting cast which would make this read a good one for you. This is not noir. Although there are murders here but somehow due to the characters they don’t seem that much darker.
I loved the book and have already bought other book in the series. I think you should have a go at this gem of a book and i’m sure you would not be disappointed.
I’ll be reading other books in the series and hope Tarquin ji will write a prequel which should have Vish Puri investigating his first case.
If you have read this book then please write in comments what you felt about it and if you haven’t then you can buy the book from the following link:
