GoodReads meta-data is 240 pages, rated 4.17 by 247 litizens.
Genre: krimi.
Verdict: tasty.
Vish Puri, chief of Most Private Investigations, is fully occupied with a money laundering problem when his mother brings him a new client.
The money that needs laundering is his own, stuffed in bags under the bed off the tax radar. However, in its wisdom the Government has abruptly decided to phase our high denomination currency in its losing war against corruption, and everyone, Puri included, has only a few days to redeem such notes, and in so doing invite the attention of the aforementioned tax authorities. Son of an upright police officer, Puri will not break the law, but a little bending is in order, and he shifts and sways to find a way, which brings him into contact with some types he would have preferred to avoid.
While he is bobbing and weaving, his mother, whose repeated interference in his investigations makes him appreciate his stay-at-home and mind-her-own-business wife all the more, brings in a new client, who of course cannot pay. What’s more she claims to be the reincarnation of a dead murder victim. Ah ha! Here is line Puri can draw. No dead clients.
That is, until he realised that the ostensible victim’s death was one his deceased father investigated to no avail because it was caught up in the terrible 1984 Sikh riots following the murder of Indira Gandhi. His father was sure the victim was murdered and not yet another victim of the riots, but in the chaos of the time he could turn up no evidence. Reluctantly then, Puri opens a file to honour his revered father and placate his mother who seldom takes no for an answer.
Meanwhile, an unhappy former client wants him to cure his new son-in-law’s snoring or give back the handsome fee Puri was paid to assess the young man as a suitable husband for this client’s daughter. Whew! Clients do ask for a lot for their money. Puri offers a refund but that is refused with a threat of bad publicity or even court action. With no choice he adds snoring to his list of tasks.
To deal with the trifecta Puri mobilises his operatives: Hand Brake, Facecream, Tubelight, Flush, and Ms Elizabeth Rami who is the office manager, and no one dares to take liberties with her name. Then there is the spy gecko, a drone of sorts. Much of the telling is light-hearted, and Puri offers again a guide to Indian cuisine as he munches his way around Delhi trying to find ways to deal with the money, the murder, and the snorer. In the course of so doing, his Hindustan Ambassador automobile is wrecked, and his operatives torture a hitman with a cat, and his youngest daughter wants to get married with or without his permission! Meanwhile, a tax man cometh.
This is the fifth in the series, and as always recent Indian history provides the backdrop, in this case the riots that saw countless Sikhs murdered for being Sikhs following the killing of Prime Minister Gandhi (by the Sikh bodyguards). Madness and badness are not confined to the USA.
I tried the web site on Safari, Firefox, and Chrome without success, and then quit while I was behind. Try if you must: http://www.vishpuri.com/#http://
The change of currency reminded me of the phasing out of the 500 Euro note. It was done to make black market transaction in the drug business more difficult, because the €500 was the favourite of drug cartels. Evidence? Well, one news account said that at one large European bank 5000 of the €500 notes were tested and all of them but four (4) tested positive for traces of cocaine! I found that pretty convincing, leaving aside the larger question of whether drug use should be illegal. Regrettably, I did not bookmark that article for the reader’s reference.