What do readers think of The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall? Write your own review.

The Case Of The Missing Servant is the first book in the Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator series by British journalist and author, Tarquin Hall. The usual fare of Most Private Investigators Ltd. in Delhi is marriage: vetting prospective spouses. Vish Puri and his talented employees are good at what they do, and he takes pride in his inevitable successes.

The request from a Jaipur lawyer who believes himself under threat of prosecution is a surprise, but Ajay Kasliwal is an acquaintance of a friend, so Vish accepts the case. The Jaipur police want Kasliwal to produce Mary, the maid who disappeared in August, four months earlier, or face a charge of rape and murder. Kasliwal maintains his innocence: yes, he might not be completely faithful to his wife of twenty-nine years, but no, never with the staff.

Kasliwal is known for trying to clean up corruption in his city, and is convinced those he targets are trying to ruin his reputation. The badly beaten body of a young woman was found at the time Mary disappeared, but Vish finds it telling that police are only now pursuing her employer. The Inspector in charge of the case, though, believes he has found the killer and determined to make an example of Kasliwal.

Vish conducts interviews with the household but also arranged surveillance and infiltration to find out what really happened. Distracting him from the Jaipur case, Brigadier Bagga Kapoor who has taken against his granddaughter’s fiancé, unfairly, Vish believes: the young man may not have served India in war, but he is hardworking, teetotal, doesn’t use drugs or visit prostitutes. Does the Brigadier have a case?

Also, someone has emptied a six-shooter in Vish’s direction one morning while he attends to his roof-top garden. The police aren’t really interested, beyond saying the Puri houseboy is their main suspect, but Vish has examined the shooter’s likely position, and he has people on the case. He’s not at all happy that Mummy has decided to investigate. It’s true that she had occasionally assisted his late policeman father, but he really wishes she would keep out of this: he has it in hand.

Hall gives the reader plots with plenty of intrigue and a generous helping of humour; and a clever and likeable protagonist in this portly, persistent, Punjabi PI, with his quirkily-nicknamed team: Tubelight, Flush, Facecream and Handbrake.

Hall really has the measure of his setting: “Outside Jaipur’s District and Sessions Court, rows of male typists sat at small wooden desks bashing away at manual typewriters. The tapping of tiny hammers on paper punctuated by the pings of carriage bells was constant – the very sound of the great, self-perpetuating industry of Indian red tape” and the dialogue is authentic and entertaining. More of this cast is most welcome and, luckily there are at least another five novels in the series to be enjoyed.

Private Investigator Vish Puri is also the managing director of ‘Most Private Investigators Ltd. A well respected and honest public litigator has been accused of killing Mary, his maidservant. Vish must also investigate a second case involving a potential bridegroom.

Vish’s character is perfect except he has an immense fear of flying. Luckily for Vish, he has a team of operatives that support him, especially his Mommy who conducts her own investigation.

There are actually three mysteries in the story but I’ll let you discover the other one on your own, but each mystery is very well done. Tarquin Hall’s writing is first class. Tarquin spent many years in India so he knows and understands the country and its people well.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book that kept me turning page after page. I kept telling myself that once I got to the end of the chapter I’d go to bed. Well, I didn’t. Once I read the first page of the next chapter, then I’d have to read the whole thing!