The Case of the Missing Servant  (English, Paperback, Hall Tarquin)

The Case Of The Missing Servant, written by Tarquin Hall, is a whodunit mystery novel set in Delhi about a maidservant who disappears from the posh suburbs of Delhi, and the consequences of her disappearance.

Summary Of The Book

The Case Of The Missing Servant presents Vish Puri, a portly private investigator, whose cases are usually limited to doing background checks and snooping on matrimonial prospects for arranged marriages. Now, he has a real case to solve. A maidservant named Mary has disappeared in Delhi. Her employer, the noted lawyer Ajay Khasliwal, is under suspicion following her disappearance, and stands accused of murdering her and hiding her body to conceal the crime. Khasliwal claims that he has been framed and is a victim of a corrupt system, and that the authorities are out for revenge against him. Vish Puri takes up the case to prove the lawyer’s innocence.

Puri’s quest for the truth and his unrelenting desire to solve this case, take him on an interesting journey from the laidback Gymkhana Clubs, where the privileged lot of Delhi spend their leisure time to the slums of Delhi, home to the servant class. He also goes all the way to the sand-dunes of Jaipur and the mines of Jharkhand, in search of Mary. He must employ all of his investigative skills as he and his undercover team, Facecream, Tubelight and Flush set about solving this case. 

The Case of the Missing Servant (2009) is the first in the series of the Tarquin Hall mystery novels and introduces a fictional Punjabi Character Vish Puri, India’s Most Private Investigator.

About Tarquin Hall

Tarquin Hall is an English author and journalist.

His other books include Mercenaries, Missionaries and Misfits: Adventures of an Under-age Journalist, Salaam Brick Lane, and To the Elephant Graveyard. The others in the series of mystery novels include The Case Of The Man Who Died Laughing and The Case Of The Deadly Butter Chicken.

Tarquin Hall was born in 1969 and lives with his wife, Indian-born British TV Presenter Anu Anand, and their two children in Delhi. He has worked in Television and was a South Asia Bureau Chief of Associated Press TV. His articles have been published in the Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, Sunday Times, The Times and Observer. He has travelled extensively and lived in many countries including the United States, Pakistan, Kenya and India.