I'm happy with the suggestions already made but if you're looking for others, we could try one of these (I haven't read any of them)

My spouse thought I should read this book. It was a dead-tree book, but interesting, none the less. The interest in this book is that it is written about an Indian private detective, i.e. a private detective living in the country of India. Which is to say, this book is not at all like the books about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, who are "Indian" private detectives living in the Four Corners area of the U.S.A. Now days, we refer to those "Indians" as being "Native Americans". Perhaps "Indigenous Americans" would be a better term, given that I'm a Native American by dint of having been born here. But I digress. Anyway, the interest for my spouse, was to learn something about the culture of India.

So, Vish Puri, aka "Chubby", is a private detective in India. He is hired to find some dirt on the potential son-in-law of a very rich guy. Obviously, the rich guy doesn't want him for a son-in-law. Then, a rich and powerful lawyer gets into a bit of trouble and hopes Vish will bail him out. It seems that he has been accused of being responsible for the rape and murder of a young woman who had been a servant in his household. The murder rap came some months after the body had been found. The servant girl went missing about the same time. It's not completely clear, however, that the body is actually that of the missing servant. It's just a similar size and shape...or something.

So, Vish, is to figure out whether or not the body is the missing servant, or if the girl is actually out somewhere hiding among the billion folks in India's hinterlands. It doesn't help that no one really knows the girl's origins, or anything much more about her than her first name. They don't even have a decent picture. But Vish, who runs The Most Private Investigator, and in his estimation, India's greatest detective, head and shoulders above lesser lights such as Sherlock Holmes, and his gang of helpers, Handbrake, Doorstop, Facecream, etc. pursue all leads ruthlessly and eventually figure out what's important to know about the prospective bridegroom and the missing servant girl. Quite fun!

Vish Puri is 50ish, pudgy (if not worse), culturally conservative, and easily impressed with himself. And, seemingly, a pretty decent Private Investigator. Unlike most P.I.'s in fiction, he's not a lone wolf -- and he doesn't have one hyperviolent friend to back him up. He has a team -- working for him, doing footwork, the tech stuff -- that sort of thing. I wish we saw more of this in these kind of novels.

 

Anyway, Puri (known to his friends and family as "Chubby," his employees as "Boss") has two clients in this particular book -- neither of which seems to appreciate the fact that he's not the agency's sole focus. One client -- a retired army general of some prominence, wants a background check on his granddaughter's fiancé -- the wedding is weeks away and the general is sure something's wrong with him.

 

The second client has a trickier case -- he's a lawyer with a track record of helping the lower classes and exploited, with an eye to environmental issues. A servant girl who had been working a few months for his family took off unexpectedly (with money owed her), but they didn't really give it any thought. Months later, he's being investigated (and, minor spoiler, but fairly obvious), and eventually charged with, her murder.

 

I know next to nothing about the Indian legal system, police workings, but a little more about the culture (let me stress the "little" there) -- so this was all interesting and foreign to me. The widespread expectation -- and acceptance -- of corruption, bribery, and so on was pretty surprising. I realize that's par for the course in some parts of the world, but for some reason, I didn't think India would be one of those parts. The food, the economics, the convictions and conventions related to marriage, that sort of thing -- yeah, I was prepared for that, just not the widespread bribery. Makes the Favor Bank in The Bonfire of the Vanities look like daycare.

 

There's nothing for the reader to do with the background check case other than watch the way that the agency works -- and the allies they utilize. There's nothing really for the reader to pick up on to "solve" with the detective. But we do get to see the stealthy, quiet, un-hurried approach they take -- despite the client's expectations. Thankfully (for the way my brain works, anyway), there was plenty to chew on with the missing servant -- and it was a pretty easy solution. But the way that Puri went about solving it, and the red herrings that were thrown in the way were well done and unique to this series and setting. I really appreciated the way this was constructed.

 

The narration has some fun at Puri's expense -- both directly, and though the thoughts of his employees and mother. He needs to diet, he's prone to self-aggrandizement -- but he's good at his job, and that's allowed to show forth, too. Beyond Puri, we don't get to know anyone as a character really -- little flashes of personality and backstory here and there, but nothing like a fully fleshed out character. But I don't think that's the kind of story that Hall is looking to tell here.

 

Amusing, clever, moved along nicely and was an interesting take on a culture I know nowhere near enough about -- I'll be back for another.

This book is what I wish The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency would have been. It's about an Indian detectives who solves mysteries and researches marriage partners. I love the humor in these books and how Vish Puri thinks he is like James Bond when he's not at all. Although he is a great private detective. The many characters are entertaining as well. I enjoyed this book.

I picked up a copy of The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall at my local library after hearing it referred to from several sources as similar to Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Sadly, Tarquin's first book in the Vish Puri series lacks the grace that draw me to McCall Smith's books. While The Case of the Missing Servant has good points, it also has many flaws.The series centers on private detective Vish Puri and his Most Private Investigators Ltd., a small private detective agency in Delhi, India. In this first book in the series, Puri works on several cases, the most dramatic of which is a case in which a man has been accused of murdering a maidservant. I did find the descriptions of life in India quite interesting and some of the characters - especially some of Puri's employees and his indomitable mother - were very likable and even relatable. Unfortunate, the main character himself is smug, arrogant and outrageously wrong-headed, almost to the point of becoming a caricature. There were moments that felt that they deserved the sort of laugh track a 1950s sitcom husband would get when his wife or mother saved him from himself. Puri ultimate made The Case of the Missing Servant impossible for me to fully enjoy.This is an interesting concept for a detective novel - its setting, descriptions of life and culture in India and some of its characters were not bad at all. Unfortunately, the smug arrogance of the main character ruined the book for me. I would rather wait for the next No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novel than read another Vish Puri book.Read this review and more at The Library Lass Book Talk Blog.