The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck

The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck
Author: Tarquin Hall
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2025-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1448308208

Portly, perceptive and spectacularly moustachioed, India’s finest private detective, Vish Puri, tackles his most difficult case to date in the long-awaited return of Tarquin Hall’s delightful humorous whodunit series set in New Delhi. “Vish Puri is the Indian Poirot” Financial Times “A wonderfully engaging PI” The Times “Vish Puri [is] a Punjabi Sherlock Holmes” The Guardian When Vish Puri, India’s Most Private Detective, learns he’s won the long-coveted International Detective of the Year award, it’s supposed to be a secret. But within hours, it seems all of Delhi knows – and his indomitable Mummy-ji announces she’ll be coming with him to the ceremony in London, never mind that she’s not been invited. To add to his woes, a senior government bureaucrat gives him an undercover mission he can’t refuse. Puri is tasked with tracking down India’s most-wanted fugitive: a billionaire pharmaceutical fraudster codenamed Bombay Duck, who’s rumoured to be hiding in the British capital. Puri’s only spending a week in London . . . and he’s already promised his wife he won’t work during their once-in-a-lifetime trip. In desperation, he enlists the help of his reluctant nephew Jags and dives headfirst into the case. But can Puri hook the Bombay Duck and bring him to justice – all the while keeping his investigations secret from his wife and meddling mother? Packed with the sights, sounds and flavours of both New Delhi and London, author Tarquin Hall – who divides his time between India and the UK – delivers an irresistible read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Harini Nagendra and Jesse Sutanto.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Author: Jean-Dominique Bauby
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2008-03-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307454835

A triumphant memoir by the former editor-in-chief of French Elle that reveals an indomitable spirit and celebrates the liberating power of consciousness. In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young children, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book. By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book is a lasting testament to his life.

The Case of the Reincarnated Client

The Case of the Reincarnated Client
Author: Tarquin Hall
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2019-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1448303567

"Hilarious ... Hall’s plot is filled with engaging twists. Vish is a wonderfully realized character ... You can dive in anywhere in this series and be rewarded with a rich experience" – Booklist Starred Review A client claiming she was murdered in a past life is a novel dilemma even for Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator. When a young woman comes forward claiming to be the reincarnation of Riya Kaur, a wife and mother who vanished during the bloody 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Puri is dismissive. He's busy enough dealing with an irate matrimonial client whose daughter is complaining about her groom’s thunderous snoring. Puri's indomitable Mummy-ji however is adamant the client is genuine. How else could she so accurately describe under hypnosis Riya Kaur's life and final hours? Driven by a sense of duty - the original case was his late father’s - Puri manages to acquire the police file only to find that someone powerful has orchestrated a cover-up. Forced into an alliance with his mother that tests his beliefs and high blood pressure as never before, it’s only by delving into the past the help of his reincarnated client that Puri can hope to unlock the truth.

The Case of the Missing Servant

The Case of the Missing Servant
Author: Tarquin Hall
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2009-06-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416584021

The first in a detective series that “immediately joins the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency as representing the best in international cozies” (Booklist, starred review). Meet Vish Puri, India’s most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India’s swindlers, cheats, and murderers. In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centers and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri’s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri’s resources to investigate. With his team of undercover operatives—Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream—Puri combines modern techniques with principles of detection established in India more than two thousand years ago, and reveals modern India in all its seething complexity.

Salaam Brick Lane

Salaam Brick Lane
Author: Tarquin Hall
Publisher: John Murray Pubs Limited
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780719565564

After ten years living abroad, Tarquin Hall wanted to return to his native London. Lured by his nostalgia for a leafy suburban childhood spent in south-west London, he returned with his Indian-born, American fiance in tow. But, priced out of the housing market, they found themselves living not in a townhouse, oozing Victorian charm, but in a squalid attic above a Bangladeshi sweatshop on London's Brick Lane. A grimy skylight provided the only window on their new world: a filthy, noisy street where drug dealers and prostitutes peddled their wares and tramps urinated on the pavements. At night, traffic lights lit up the ceiling and police sirens wailed into the early hours. Yet, as Hall got to know Brick Lane, he discovered beneath its unlovely surface an inner world where immigrants and asylum seekers struggle to better themselves and dream of escape. Salaam Brick Lane is a journey of discovery by an outsider in his own native city. It offers an explicit glimpse of the underbelly of London's most infamous quarter, the real-life world of Monica Ali's bestselling novel.

Semantics

Semantics
Author: James R. Hurford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1983-04-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521289498

Introduces the major elements of semantics in a simple, step-by-step fashion. Sections of explanation and examples are followed by practice exercises with answers and comment provided.

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken
Author: Tarquin Hall
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2013-06-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451613172

Mustachioed sleuth Vish Puri tackles his greatest fears in a case involving the poisoning death of the elderly father of a leading Pakistani cricketer, whose demise is linked to the Indian and Pakistani mafias and the violent 1947 partition of India.

The Oxford Circus

The Oxford Circus
Author: Raymond Mortimer
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2019-12-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

"The Oxford Circus" by Raymond Mortimer is a novel about Oxford and youth, originally by Alfred Budd. Its sparkling epigrams, and its vivid portrayal of life in many different strata of our modern society, seem almost unexpected from one who lived so quietly as Mr. Budd. Yet somehow his originality of invention leaves no room for doubt: Budd was perhaps the first novelist to introduce the London and North Western Railway station into a novel.

Grimm Up North

Grimm Up North
Author: David J. Gatward
Publisher:
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2020-07-19
Genre:
ISBN:

Edinburgh has Rebus.The Highlands have Logan.Now Yorkshire has Grimm ...Welcome to Wensleydale, where the cheese is famous, the scenery beautiful, and the locals have murder on their minds ...Detective Chief Inspector Harry Grimm is forced to take leave from Bristol's Major Investigations Team when his boss, tired of Harry chasing the ghost of his murderous father, sends him north on secondment.Used to city life and high stress, Harry fears his life will now be spent handing out speeding tickets, finding lost sheep, and directing tourists. But when a local teenager runs away, Harry finds himself pulled into an investigation much worse than anyone could have ever expected.The nicer the place, the darker the secrets. Wensleydale is beautiful, everyone is friendly and welcoming, and people just don't get murdered ... do they?A classic fish-out-of-water crime mystery set in the stunning and evocative scenery of Wensleydale in North Yorkshire.Grimm up North is the terrific debut crime novel from award-winning author David J. Gatward. Perfect for fans of L. J. Ross, J. D. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Alex Smith, J. M. Dalgliesh, J. E. Mayhew, and J. R. Ellis.

The Sun, the Earth, and Near-earth Space

The Sun, the Earth, and Near-earth Space
Author: John A. Eddy
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780160838088

" ... Concise explanations and descriptions - easily read and readily understood - of what we know of the chain of events and processes that connect the Sun to the Earth, with special emphasis on space weather and Sun-Climate."--Dear Reader.