Published by Severn House, 2025, 214 pages

Most Private Investigator Vish Puri is getting ready to go to London to receive the International Detective of the Year award. He and his wife Rumpi are looking forward to the week-long trip and plan to make a holiday of it.

Unfortunately, nothing works out the way Puri had planned. First of all, his mother, Mummy-ji, announces she is accompanying them. Puri points out that she does not have a passport, never mind a visa. Mummy-ji is not at all fazed by this and offers to buy her own ticket.

Second, the president of the International Federation of Private Detectives, who called to tell Puri about the award, had asked him to keep it under wraps. But everyone in Delhi seems to know, and it has even made it to the papers.

Third, his plans for a holiday are scuttled. Puri is summoned by Dilip Shrivastava, additional secretary, Ministry of Finance, for a meeting. While in London, he is to track down Dr. Harilal Bhatt, founder and CEO of Bio Solutions, an Indian pharmaceutical company. Bhatt had fled to the UK after his miracle drug to cure diabetes had resulted in several deaths. According to a whistle-blower, Bhatt and his team were aware of the risks but went ahead anyway.

There was also the question of hundreds of millions of dollars that Bhatt had borrowed from Indian state banks. Bhatt fled the country before he could be arrested on charges including culpable homicide and fraud. Shrivastava wants Puri to find him and bring him back. He makes it clear the mission is unofficial, and Puri will be acting as a private citizen, to avoid involving the Indian High Commission in London.

And so the trip gets off to a rollicking start. Puri is followed by a goon, who does not escape Mummy-ji’s sharp eye. (Yes, Mummy-ji has made it onto the plane, having mysteriously procured not only a passport but also a UK visa in three days.)

They stay with Rumpi’s cousin Nina, her husband Joni and son Jagat, or Jags. Jags is working at Deliveroo instead of going to university, and Puri has trouble understanding his attitude and his accent. But as uncle and nephew spend time together, they build a relationship—which also has quite a lot to do with Jags getting involved in Puri’s attempts to track down and capture the elusive Bhatt. And to help keep it all from Rumpi and Mummy-ji.

Puri goes to see Inspector Simon Bromley of Scotland Yard, an old friend with whom Puri had worked on earlier cases. Bromley tells Puri that Scotland Yard has also been on Bhatt’s trail, and the two agree to work together. Back in Delhi, Puri’s team is keeping a watch on Bhatt’s house, where his wife still lives. Flush, one of his operatives, is developing a crush on the Bhatt’s maid Savita.

In the meantime, Nina, Rumpi and Mummy-ji are meeting with family members and friends in London. Mummy-ji has doubts about her close friend’s prospective in-laws, and suspects that they may be keeping their maid prisoner. So the women are now on a case of their own.

This book is a delightful read. These are some of my favourite characters in fiction, in particular Vish Puri and Mummy-ji, both of whom have a strong sense of justice and do not miss a thing. The relationship between Jags, who knows a lot about London, and Puri, who knows a lot about life, is well developed. They are not only from different generations but from different worlds. Jags tries to teach his uncle the ways of the city, while Puri tries to persuade the boy to do something more with his life—in both cases, with mixed results.

Tarquin Hall brings it all to life. The book is engaging and laugh-out-loud funny at times. Although his detective novels are very entertaining, they also delve into social issues, which gives them depth.

I believe there is another Vish Puri book on the way, and I’m looking forward to it.

Read the interview with Tarquin Hall, and my review of Hall’s The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken.