No doubt inspired by the phenomenal success of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Precious Ramotswe, British writer Tarquin Hall introduces VISH PURI, the head of Delhi's Most Private Investigators Ltd., in The Case of the Missing Servant.

Like Smith's work, the strength and charm of this book (and potential series debut) relies in its subtlety, its gracefully nuanced character studies and its vividly rendered cultural color, rather than fisticuffs and gunfire. Chubby, eccentric Puri is middle-aged and married, a Delhi version of Horace Rumpole, but with better grooming skills. Not for him, then, the mean streets - most of his cases consist of background checks on potential spouses. But don't be fooled -- he's not quite the complacent, dandyish buffoon his adversaries may think, and when push comes to shove, as they do when he's called upon to investigate a missing servant girl whose employer has been charged with her murder, it soon becomes apparent that Vish possesses a keen wit and a razor-sharp mind.

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