Tarquin Hall, a British journalist and writer who has spent much time in India, has just written the second Vish Puri mystery:   The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, (S & S, 6/15/10).  Puri is the head of Delhi’s “Most Private Investigators Ltd” and even the police turn to him for solutions to especially difficult or sensitive cases.  Puri likes to be called Boss by his employees, perhaps as an antidote to his familial nickname Chubby.  His operatives, also known by nicknames, are Flush, Tubelight and Facecream, and the lazy office boy is called Door Stop.
Like the first book in this new series, The Case of the Missing Servant (S & S, 2009), Hall combines his intriguing plots with a gently humorous look at the foibles of Indian society. Hall has also written two non-fiction books: Salaam Brick Lane (2005) and To the Elephant Graveyard (2000).
–posted 5/28/10
Posted
May/28/2010
The Double Comfort Safari Club is the 11th book in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and reviewers say that it’s up to Smith’s usual high standards.  These “African cozies” are not everyone’s cup of bush tea, of course, but his readers are legion, especially after two successful seasons as an HBO series starring Jill Scott (now available on DVD).  It’s amazing how Smith keeps churning them out–and he has three other series going!
–posted 5/20/2010
Posted
May/17/2010
With a first printing of 200,000, Morrow is expecting Death Echo (6/8/2010) to shoot straight up the best seller lists. Former CIA agent Emma Cross joins St. Kilda Consulting and is assigned to investigate a yacht carrying unidentified lethal weapons.  Her partner is Mac Durand, a former special ops man just home from Afganistan.  Naturally amid the ensuing danger and suspense Emma and Mac fall for each other.  This kind of series, each book with different characters, locations and plots held together only by their tenuous connection to the same umbrella group (St. Kilda Consulting) is the bane of many librarians (and compilers of databases). There is no chronology, no development of character or plot. The novels have nothing in common but the publisher and the brand name author.  Yet you can be sure that Lowell fans will be asking for the St. Kilda books. So we list them.
–posted 5/7/2010
Posted
May/9/2010
Tarquin Hall, a British journalist and writer who has spent much time in India, has just written the second Vish Puri mystery:   The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, (S & S, 6/15/10).  Puri is the head of Delhi’s “Most Private Investigators Ltd” and even the police turn to him for solutions to especially difficult or sensitive cases.  Puri likes to be called Boss by his employees, perhaps as an antidote to his familial nickname Chubby.  His operatives, also known by nicknames, are Flush, Tubelight and Facecream, and the lazy office boy is called Door Stop.