“Fortunately, getting hold of people’s garbage was a cinch. Indian detectives were much luckier than their counterparts in, say, America, who were forever rooting around in people’s dustbins down dark, seedy alleyways. In India, one could simply purchase an individual’s trash on the open market. All you had to do was befriend the right rag picker. Tens of thousands of untouchables of all ages still worked as unofficial dustmen and women across the country. Every morning, they came pushing their barrows, calling, “Kooray Wallah!” and took away all the household rubbish. In the colony’s open rubbish dump, surrounded by cows, goats, dogs and crows, they would sift through piles of stinking muck by hand, separating biodegradable waste from the plastic wrappers, aluminium foil, tin cans and glass bottles.”
― Tarquin Hall, The Case of the Missing Servant
Author: Tarquin Hall
Pages: 311
Genre: Cozy mystery
Series: Vish Puri #1
First published: 2009
This is the first book in a series about the food-loving, brilliant, optimistic, Indian detective Vish Puri. He solves his cases, often several at once, like Hercule Poirot, and is India’s answer to Sherlock Holmes, even though he always denies it. He often checks up the background of potential marriage candidates to some concerned parents’ children who are planning an arranged marriage. When a lawyer shows up and reports that one of his servant girls is missing, and he himself is the prime suspect, Vish Puri is thrown into a tad more complicated and certianly more dangerous case, where several lives are at stake. His assistants and old mother are always ready to help him out, sometimes behind his back, which makes the story even more enjoyable!
I learned so much about the modern India, the culture and society around Dehli from this book. I have not read many books set in Asia, but i am definetely going to read more! As the world becomes more and more globalized, we often think the different countries are becoming more similar, which is somewhat true, but there are still some major differences that are really interesting to explore! As you can imagine, India is quite different from Norway. It’s hot, loud, spicy, chaotic and corrupt, but at the same time traditional, friendly, extremely colourful and diverse. With arranged marriages, servants and strong social classes, it feels like the old world has clashed with the new, modern world and made a colourful, chaotic painting of India.
This was a quick, fun and exotic read, where I cracked up every other page. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn more about the Indian culture, or just want to curl up with a cozy mystery.
Fabelastic Books 
