Vish Puri Series

Hello, all! This time, I'll share my opinion about the books in Vish Puri series - namely the first and second books, The Case of Missing Servant and The Case of A Man Who Died Laughing. I decide to review them in one post. I found the existence of these books in Goodreads and decided to give them a shot.

I like this book because it describes the backgrounds and the characters in detail. They gave me good laughs, too. I also love the characterization of Vish Puri. Usually, these warm-hearted detective novels have detectives with, let's say, very minimal power of investigation. Vish Puri, however, is different. Vishwas Puri, affectionately called "Chubby", is a Delhi-based PI in India. He is quite famous, being the only PI that have appeared on a magazine cover. He is a very traditional man who resents the Westernization of India values. I like him immediately. It's quite difficult to find a PI with brain and good personal life - intact marriage, no dark past trauma, etc. Usually either the PI is very brilliant but leads a dark personal life full of past baggage or he has peaceful life but well... minimal power of detection.


The author made me laugh a lot with Indian swearwords - one stuck immediately. It is maaderchod, which definition can be found in the glossary in the end of the book - or with the aid of faithful Google. More laughter caused by the Indian-English dialogues ("She is reverting tomorrow, na?"). No offense, but... They are funny!

These books gave glimpses about life in India. Wow. I think Indonesia is bad enough - sometimes water doesn't flow and sometimes there are blackouts... but India, especially the region where the Puris live in these books is worse. Power outage can be expected daily, and water is precious - although they live in town. The environmental pollution is similar too - Yamuna is no longer a pristine river in Mahabharata and Ramayana epics but a sewer. Even the moral corruption is the same - small bribes to government authorities to grease the wheels of bureaucracy, corrupt babus (the meaning is different from its Indonesian counterpart - the word babu in India means a clerk or bureaucrat), corrupt government members... The people who are relying too much to superstitious stuff and fake holy people... These books paint India in such way that makes me view India as a Hindu version of Indonesia. 

All in all, these books are must-reads, especially for you who enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's works and Nury Vittachi's.