THE CASE OF THE ELUSIVE BOMBAY DUCK

India’s most private investigator takes London by storm.

After decades years of solving cases that would perplex a lesser sleuth, Delhi’s Vish Puri finally gets the recognition he deserves. Being named Private Detective of the Year by the International Federation of Private Detectives earns him not only the admiration of his colleagues but a trip to the organization’s awards dinner in London. Eager to see all the sights, his wife, Rumpi, makes Vish promise that this won’t be a working trip, but Dilip Shrivastava, principal secretary for finance for the state of Madhya Pradesh, has other ideas. Shrivastava wants Vish to help track down Dr. Harilal Bhatt, also known as Bombay Duck, who fled India after his pharmaceutical company marketed a drug with side effects that killed hundreds. Watching Puri navigate this secret mission in the face of Rumpi’s fierce desire to visit every tourist trap in the U.K. makes this outing a joy. So does the detective’s encounter with his Anglo-Indian relatives in the South Asian enclave of East Ham. Sampling his cousin Nina’s underspiced vegan cuisine and listening to his nephew Jags’ Hinglish convinces Puri that his family is too British to be Indian, but their unfamiliarity with the world outside East Ham also persuades him that they’re too Indian to be British. The trip turns into the adventure of a lifetime, and solving the mystery is only part of the fun.

Jolly good.