The Case of the Missing Servant

Meet Vish Puri, India's most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he has the exacting nature of Hercule Poirot and the provincial appeal of Precious Ramotswe.

In hot dusty Delhi, where call centers and shopping malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri's main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his servant, it takes all of Puri's resources to investigate. In a population of more than a billion, how will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary? With his eccentric team, and techniques that combine the most modern -- and ancient -- of investigative skills, the search for Mary takes Puri to the desert oasis of Jaipur and to the remote mines of Jharkhand. As he moves from his well-heeled Club to the slums where the servant classes live, his adventures reveal modern India in all its seething complexities.