The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing
Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
The delightful, amusing, and deeply mysterious second novel to feature Vish Puri, a man after Hercule Poirot's heart, in a series that has already won diehard fans on three continents.
The bizarre murder of an Indian scientist in public by the goddess Kali is no laughing matter. Yet Dr. Suresh Jha, best known for unmasking fraudulent swamis and godmen, dies in a fit of giggles at his morning yoga class when the hideous deity appears from the mist and plunges a sword into his chest. The case is a first in the "annals of crime" according to Vish Puri, head of Delhi's Most Private Investigators. To get at the truth, Puri and his team of unstoppable undercover operatives must travel from Delhi's Shadipur slum, home of India's ancestral magicians, to the holy city of Haridwar on the Ganges — entering a world in which illusion and the supernatural are virtually indistinguishable.
From the Hardcover edition.
The bizarre murder of an Indian scientist in public by the goddess Kali is no laughing matter. Yet Dr. Suresh Jha, best known for unmasking fraudulent swamis and godmen, dies in a fit of giggles at his morning yoga class when the hideous deity appears from the mist and plunges a sword into his chest. The case is a first in the "annals of crime" according to Vish Puri, head of Delhi's Most Private Investigators. To get at the truth, Puri and his team of unstoppable undercover operatives must travel from Delhi's Shadipur slum, home of India's ancestral magicians, to the holy city of Haridwar on the Ganges — entering a world in which illusion and the supernatural are virtually indistinguishable.
From the Hardcover edition.
READ AN EXCERPT
ONE
Ensconced on the back seat of his Ambassador with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning working full blast, Vish Puri kept a wary eye on the crack in the car’s windshield. It had started off as a chink – the work of a loose stone shot from the wheels of a speeding truck on...
Read MoreEnsconced on the back seat of his Ambassador with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning working full blast, Vish Puri kept a wary eye on the crack in the car’s windshield. It had started off as a chink – the work of a loose stone shot from the wheels of a speeding truck on...
PRAISE FOR
"A terrific book with wonderful puzzle plot and a great setting."
— Globe and Mail
"Fictional detectives come in all shapes, sizes and ethnic backgrounds these days, and Tarquin Hall has created one of the most memorable. . . . Entertaining and enlightening."
— Edmonton Sun
"Unlike those of Alexander McCall Smith, the books in this series are genuine detective stories, but they are every bit as warm and entertaining and should appeal to much the same readership."
— Denver Post
From the Hardcover edition.