Grab this book now!

[gammahamster]

If you even mildly like detective novels, give The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall a try. His protagonist, his hero in an odd sort of way, Vish Puri, India's most private investigator, is the most interesting character I've run across in mysteries in a good number of years

Comments

[scanner_darkly]

Ooh, that sounds very cool.

[gammahamster]

It's a really good read. And weirdly enough, it reminded me of the best SF novels. Some of the situations that Vish has to deal with (or just takes for granted) could only exist in the environment of the setting, which is to say what appears to be a reasonably accurate (to somebody who doesn't know a great deal about the nation, like me for instance) version of modern India.

In tone the book is somewhere between a cozy and a procedural but the writing is just ... well, I'll be surprised if Hall doesn't at least get nominated for an Edgar.

[coeli]

Thanks for the recommendation. It sounds fascinating. In return, I recommend the Benjamin January mysteries by Barbara Hambly, starting with A Free Man of Color. They're set in 1830s New Orleans, and Hambly handles the social complexities of the setting beautifully. (Wonderful characters, too.)

There's a decent chance I've already recommended them to you; I feel they deserve to be better known so I talk about them a lot.

[gammahamster]

And now I have something to order from the library. Thanks! :D