The wonderful fourth outing for Delhi detective Vish Puri ('the Indian Hercule Poirot' Financial Times).

When India’s Love Commandos rescue a young woman from a high-caste family who has been forbidden from marrying an untouchable, she looks set to live happily ever after with the man she truly loves. But just hours before the wedding, her boyfriend, Ram, is abducted. Has his would-be father-in-law made good on his promise and done away with him?

It falls to Vish Puri to find out. Unfortunately, he’s not having a good month. He can’t locate a haul of stolen jewellery. He’s been pickpocketed. And the only person who can get his wallet back is his interfering Mummy-ji.

Things only get worse when he discovers that his arch-rival, Hari Kumar, is also trying to locate the abducted boy – as is a genetics research institute exploiting illiterate villagers.

To find Ram first, Puri and his team must travel into the badlands of rural India where the local politics are shaped by millennia-old caste prejudices.

'If Mma Ramotswe is an African Marple, Vish Puri is an Indian Poirot'
Financial Times

'A joy to read'
The Times

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.