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The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck

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0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 4 weeks
0 of 2 copies available
Wait time: About 4 weeks

Portly, perceptive and spectacularly moustachioed, India's finest private detective, Vish Puri, tackles his most difficult case to date in the long-awaited return of Tarquin Hall's delightful humorous whodunit series set in New Delhi.

"Vish Puri is the Indian Poirot" Financial Times

"A wonderfully engaging PI" The Times

"Vish Puri [is] a Punjabi Sherlock Holmes" The Guardian

When Vish Puri, India's Most Private Detective, learns he's won the long-coveted International Detective of the Year award, it's supposed to be a secret. But within hours, it seems all of Delhi knows – and his indomitable Mummy-ji announces she'll be coming with him to the ceremony in London, never mind that she's not been invited.

To add to his woes, a senior government bureaucrat gives him an undercover mission he can't refuse. Puri is tasked with tracking down India's most-wanted fugitive: a billionaire pharmaceutical fraudster codenamed Bombay Duck, who's rumoured to be hiding in the British capital.

Puri's only spending a week in London . . . and he's already promised his wife he won't work during their once-in-a-lifetime trip. In desperation, he enlists the help of his reluctant nephew Jags and dives headfirst into the case. But can Puri hook the Bombay Duck and bring him to justice – all the while keeping his investigations secret from his wife and meddling mother?

Packed with the sights, sounds and flavours of both New Delhi and London, author Tarquin Hall – who divides his time between India and the UK – delivers an irresistible read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Harini Nagendra and Jesse Sutanto.

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    • Library Journal

      February 1, 2025

      Vish Puri, owner of Most Private Investigators in Delhi, India, has won a much longed-for International Detective of the Year award and will travel to London to receive his award at a gala. But before he can make his plans, he is retained by a government official to hunt down a notorious fugitive code-named the Bombay Duck, whose pharmaceutical company's diabetes drug caused the deaths of hundreds of people. The fugitive is thought to be hiding in London, so Puri heads there, accompanied by his wife and his indomitable mother, Mummy-ji. In London, he teams up with his nephew Jags and Inspector Bromley of Scotland Yard to search for the fugitive. Juggling his undercover assignment with sightseeing with his wife, Puri chases leads. Meanwhile, Mummy-ji, with sleuthing skills of her own, becomes suspicious of the true intentions of a prospective bridegroom and his mother. With her daughter-in-law and niece in tow, Mummy-ji launches her own investigation. VERDICT Hall's Indian detective seems an amalgam of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. His sixth adventure (following The Case of the Reincarnated Client) will please fans of Alexander McCall Smith.--Sandy Knowles

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      March 1, 2025
      The title gives a hint of the jollity within this sixth in the Vish Puri series. "Bombay Duck" is the nickname given to the villain here; the name refers to a repulsive-looking, foul-smelling lizardfish found in Indian waters. Series hero Puri, who runs his detective agency, Most Private Detectives Agency, Ltd., in New Delhi, is elated when he learns he has won the Private Detective of the Year Award from the International Federation of Private Detectives. When a high-level civil service official learns that Puri is going to London to accept the award, he enlists Puri in the hunt for the Bombay Duck, the former CEO of a pharmaceutical company, whose fake cure for diabetes resulted in many deaths and side effects, and who has apparently absconded with a fortune to London. Puri is thrown into a case and a city he doesn't understand, hindered at every turn, but somehow perseveres. A comic and insightful detective story.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Kirkus

      March 15, 2025
      India's most private investigator takes London by storm. After decades years of solving cases that would perplex a lesser sleuth, Delhi's Vish Puri finally gets the recognition he deserves. Being named Private Detective of the Year by the International Federation of Private Detectives earns him not only the admiration of his colleagues but a trip to the organization's awards dinner in London. Eager to see all the sights, his wife, Rumpi, makes Vish promise that this won't be a working trip, but Dilip Shrivastava, principal secretary for finance for the state of Madhya Pradesh, has other ideas. Shrivastava wants Vish to help track down Dr. Harilal Bhatt, also known as Bombay Duck, who fled India after his pharmaceutical company marketed a drug with side effects that killed hundreds. Watching Puri navigate this secret mission in the face of Rumpi's fierce desire to visit every tourist trap in the U.K. makes this outing a joy. So does the detective's encounter with his Anglo-Indian relatives in the South Asian enclave of East Ham. Sampling his cousin Nina's underspiced vegan cuisine and listening to his nephew Jags' Hinglish convinces Puri that his family is too British to be Indian, but their unfamiliarity with the world outside East Ham also persuades him that they're too Indian to be British. The trip turns into the adventure of a lifetime, and solving the mystery is only part of the fun. Jolly good.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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