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Inspiring Funny Typical Important Outrageous Amazing Innovative BeautifulBooks: The Case of the Deadly
Butter Chicken Delicious Fun
THE CASE OF THE DEADLY BUTTER CHICKEN *** out of ****
BY TARQUIN HALL
$24; Simon & Schuster
341 pages
Some people read mysteries so they can match wits with the hero. They scribble down clues and
characters and get very angry if the crime is solved without offering them the chance to solve it, too (say,a key detail is revealed at the last minute). I gave up on trying to out-Sherlock the detectives/privateinvestigators/little old ladies that populate these tales a long time ago. I dive into mysteries that use the
universal stories of revenge and justice to illuminate another culture or another time, whether it's the
ancient Rome of Steven Saylor, the Laos-set mysteries of Colin Cotterill or the charting of America'sracial history via the LA tales of Walter Mosley.
I've got a new series to add to that list and a new hero: Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator.
Author Tarquin Hall is a British journalist who lives in Delhi and he has an outsider's ability to spot the
incongruities and telling detail that a local might take for granted. I read his latest mystery, The Case of
the Deadly Butter Chicken , and enjoyed it so much I immediately read the first two books of the series.
That's how I usually tackle a series; unless the books are purposely designed to be stand-alone and notbuild on one another, I like to see the characters develop in chronological order. Since there are onlyMOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2
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three titles to date in this amusing series, I wasn't thrown off by jumping back and forth in time with Mr.
Puri. but if you're like me, you'll want to start with The Case of the Missing Servant . Or you can just wait
fot the movie -- surely it's only a matter of time before Hollywood turns this into a film or TV show.
Puri makes most of his money by investigating the backgrounds of people who are going to get married.
Arranged marriages seem bizarre to most Westerners, but the books here offer insight into how tradition
and the idea of marriage (a partnership perhaps as much as a romance) can color people's expectations
until it doesn't seem so odd. Of course, then the young people involved decide it's not for them anyway,
so we see modernity creeping in nonetheless.
The three books develop nicely with each central mystery a little more complicated and dangerous than
the one before. The Case of the Missing Servant revolves around an arranged marriage and the
disappearance of a servant no one seems terribly concerned about. The Case of the Man Who Died
Laughing revolves around con artists who use religion to trick people into handing over buckets of
money. And The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken includes the poisoning of the father of a top
cricketeer, organized crime and a journey into Pakistan where many of Puri's family were massacredduring the partition of 1947.
But the driving force of all the stories are the charmingly believable characters. Puri has a fondness for
eating his wife tries desperately to counteract. Time and again she attempts to impose a diet and time andagain he takes a break from sleuthing to sneak a delicious snack here and there, always careful to avoid
dripping any tell-tale stains on his clothing and meticulously wiping off his fingers. (The back of the book
even includes some recipes, in this case even one for deadly butter chicken, sans poison.) His team of
misfit assistants come into focus with each book, their varied backgrounds letting us see what life is like
in India for people of various castes and economic backgrounds. And always nearby with unstoppablefocus is Mummy-ji, a woman with as much smarts as her son and as much a desire to solve puzzles thatcome her way, though Puri will haplessly insist that investigating is not a suitable occupation formummies.
Small details make the series comes alive, like Puri's battle in traffic. He has a driver who suffers over
Puri's insistence on NOT sounding the horn at every possible moment and a bizarre insistence onobeying certain traffic laws that not a single other driver on the road would pay heed to. Various clubsand Puri's status in them are telling. With some officials he is curt, with others he adopts a fauxobsequiousness and with still others a genuine obsequiousness that comes naturally to Puri with hisrespect for certain traditions.
Gently amusing and with a real feel for Delhi, this is a charming series. Each new novel has raised the
stakes subtly and Hall has grown more confident with each outing. It's quite possible that what has begunas a fun series will become a genuinely great one.
BOOKS I'VE READ SO FAR IN 2012
1. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt ***
2. Jack Holmes and His Friend by Edmund White ***3. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle **4. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel ***
5. Death Walks In Eastrepp by Francis Beeding ***
6. Lumious Airplanes by Paul La Farge ***/7. The Professionals by Owen Laukkanen ** 1/28. Unterzakhn by Leela Corman **9. The Child Who by Simon Lelic ***10. Hinterland by Caroline Brothers ***11. The Yard by Alex Grecian *** 1/212. The Alienist by Caleb Carr ***
13. On The Wings Of Heroes by Richard Peck *** 1/2
14. A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs *15. The Gods Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs **16. The Warlord Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs ** 1/2MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW 1 of 2
HOT ON FACEBOOK 1 of 3
HOT ON TWITTER 1 of 2
HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES
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Kansas
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Mitch
McConnell
Pretty Little
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Exist?
How to Talk to Little Girls
Michiko Kakutani's 11
Meanest Book Reviews
ricky_martin
RetweetMake Room for (the New) Daddy
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RetweetThink on it: Cambridge scientistssay all mammals, birds, many
others including octopi, have
human-like consciousness.http://t.co/aF6W2ZQh
FOLLOW BOOKS
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File: Sci-Fi Legend
Suspected...
Reading Great
Writers' Worst
Books
Worst Book
Reviews: Michiko
Kakutani's 11
Meanest...
Reclaim Your Heart17. Undefeated: America's Heroic Fight For Bataan and Corregidor by Bill Sloan ** 1/2
18. Stoner by John Williams ****
19. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt *** 1/2
20. The 500 by Matthew Quirk **
21. The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton ****
22. The Alienist by Caleb Carr ***\
23. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi **
24. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ***25. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky **
26. Traitor's Gate by Avi ** 1/2
27. Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins ***
28. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson *** 1/2
29. The Twelve Rooms Of The Nile by Enid Shomer ** 1/2
30. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel *** 1/231. In One Person by John Irving **32. A Million Heavens by John Brandon ***
33. The Case Of The Deadly Butter Chicken by Tarquin Hall ***
34. Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man by Walter Stahr *** 1/2
35. The Kings of Cool by Don Winslow ***
36. The Case of The Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall ***
37. Savages by Don Winslow ***38. The Case Of The Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall ***39. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris ***40. Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale **41. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker **42. The Panic of 1907 by Robert F. Bruner and Sean Carr ***
43. The House That Ruth Built by Robert Weintraub *** 1/2
44. I Am Spartacus: Making A Film, Breaking The Blacklist by Kirk Douglas *** 1/245. Showdown At Shepherd's Bush by David Davis ***46. Alif The Unseen by G. Willow Wilson ** 1/2
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion
makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also
available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.
Note : Michael Giltz is provided with free galleys and/or final copies of books to consider for review.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
More in Books...
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11:34 AM on 07/11/2012
omg! i LOVE this series and i'm not much of a reader of stories set in countries other than the US (i
know, i know). but i love vish puri (chubby) and his cohorts and family. i've been waiting for this oneto come out! very excited.
11:18 AM on 07/14/2012
Thanks for commenting. If you were a fan of the first two, I'm certain you'll enjoy this onejust as much.
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Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from
HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors
Michael Giltz
Freelance writerGET UPDATES FROM MICHAEL GILTZ
Follow
India , Video , Books , Mysteries , Mystery , Tarquin Hall , The Case Of The Deadly Butter
Chicken , Vish Puri , Vish Puri Mysteries , Books NewsReact
Inspiring Funny Typical Important Outrageous Amazing Innovative BeautifulBooks: The Case of the Deadly
Butter Chicken Delicious Fun
THE CASE OF THE DEADLY BUTTER CHICKEN *** out of ****
BY TARQUIN HALL
$24; Simon & Schuster
341 pages
Some people read mysteries so they can match wits with the hero. They scribble down clues and
characters and get very angry if the crime is solved without offering them the chance to solve it, too (say,a key detail is revealed at the last minute). I gave up on trying to out-Sherlock the detectives/privateinvestigators/little old ladies that populate these tales a long time ago. I dive into mysteries that use the
universal stories of revenge and justice to illuminate another culture or another time, whether it's the
ancient Rome of Steven Saylor, the Laos-set mysteries of Colin Cotterill or the charting of America'sracial history via the LA tales of Walter Mosley.
I've got a new series to add to that list and a new hero: Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator.
Author Tarquin Hall is a British journalist who lives in Delhi and he has an outsider's ability to spot the
incongruities and telling detail that a local might take for granted. I read his latest mystery, The Case of
the Deadly Butter Chicken , and enjoyed it so much I immediately read the first two books of the series.
That's how I usually tackle a series; unless the books are purposely designed to be stand-alone and notbuild on one another, I like to see the characters develop in chronological order. Since there are onlyMOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2
MAP: Hurricane Isaac's Path
Aims For Gulf Coast
Limbaugh's Wild Isaac
Conspiracy
Isaac Balloons Into A
Hurricane, New Orleans
Threatened
Republican Attendees Thrown
Out After Racist Attack On
CNN Worker
RPatz Agrees To Meet KStew
But Is Selling Their Home
Chipotle Busted For Cheating
Customers Out Of Pennies
Deaf Boy Asked To Make
Controversial Change (VIDEO)
GOP Approves Abortion Ban
PHOTO: The Queen Rolls In A
Range Rover Wearing A
Hoodie
DON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS 1 of 5
Bill Moyers
WATCH: Both Parties Give
Invisible Americans the Silent
Treatment
Dean Baker
Poverty: The New Growth Industry
in AmericaFOLLOW USBook Club Libraries In Crisis
August 29, 2012
Edition: U.S.
FRONT PAGE POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS MEDIA ARTS SCIENCE RELIGION TRAVEL EDUCATION LIVE ALL SECTIONS
Bill Moyers Dean Baker
John Hillcoat Bobby BowdenHOT ON THE BLOG
HuffPost Social Reading
Like 102
Posted: 07/10/2012 11:23 am
SHARE THIS STORY
Submit this storyRecommend 255
Like 7k
Recommend 677
Like 7k
Like 41
Like 458
Like 3k
Recommend 8k
Like 989NYR More Log in Create Account
three titles to date in this amusing series, I wasn't thrown off by jumping back and forth in time with Mr.
Puri. but if you're like me, you'll want to start with The Case of the Missing Servant . Or you can just wait
fot the movie -- surely it's only a matter of time before Hollywood turns this into a film or TV show.
Puri makes most of his money by investigating the backgrounds of people who are going to get married.
Arranged marriages seem bizarre to most Westerners, but the books here offer insight into how tradition
and the idea of marriage (a partnership perhaps as much as a romance) can color people's expectations
until it doesn't seem so odd. Of course, then the young people involved decide it's not for them anyway,
so we see modernity creeping in nonetheless.
The three books develop nicely with each central mystery a little more complicated and dangerous than
the one before. The Case of the Missing Servant revolves around an arranged marriage and the
disappearance of a servant no one seems terribly concerned about. The Case of the Man Who Died
Laughing revolves around con artists who use religion to trick people into handing over buckets of
money. And The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken includes the poisoning of the father of a top
cricketeer, organized crime and a journey into Pakistan where many of Puri's family were massacredduring the partition of 1947.
But the driving force of all the stories are the charmingly believable characters. Puri has a fondness for
eating his wife tries desperately to counteract. Time and again she attempts to impose a diet and time andagain he takes a break from sleuthing to sneak a delicious snack here and there, always careful to avoid
dripping any tell-tale stains on his clothing and meticulously wiping off his fingers. (The back of the book
even includes some recipes, in this case even one for deadly butter chicken, sans poison.) His team of
misfit assistants come into focus with each book, their varied backgrounds letting us see what life is like
in India for people of various castes and economic backgrounds. And always nearby with unstoppablefocus is Mummy-ji, a woman with as much smarts as her son and as much a desire to solve puzzles thatcome her way, though Puri will haplessly insist that investigating is not a suitable occupation formummies.
Small details make the series comes alive, like Puri's battle in traffic. He has a driver who suffers over
Puri's insistence on NOT sounding the horn at every possible moment and a bizarre insistence onobeying certain traffic laws that not a single other driver on the road would pay heed to. Various clubsand Puri's status in them are telling. With some officials he is curt, with others he adopts a fauxobsequiousness and with still others a genuine obsequiousness that comes naturally to Puri with hisrespect for certain traditions.
Gently amusing and with a real feel for Delhi, this is a charming series. Each new novel has raised the
stakes subtly and Hall has grown more confident with each outing. It's quite possible that what has begunas a fun series will become a genuinely great one.
BOOKS I'VE READ SO FAR IN 2012
1. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt ***
2. Jack Holmes and His Friend by Edmund White ***3. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle **4. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel ***
5. Death Walks In Eastrepp by Francis Beeding ***
6. Lumious Airplanes by Paul La Farge ***/7. The Professionals by Owen Laukkanen ** 1/28. Unterzakhn by Leela Corman **9. The Child Who by Simon Lelic ***10. Hinterland by Caroline Brothers ***11. The Yard by Alex Grecian *** 1/212. The Alienist by Caleb Carr ***
13. On The Wings Of Heroes by Richard Peck *** 1/2
14. A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs *15. The Gods Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs **16. The Warlord Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs ** 1/2MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW 1 of 2
HOT ON FACEBOOK 1 of 3
HOT ON TWITTER 1 of 2
HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES
Snooki
Television
Gas & Oil
Standardized
Testing
Latino
Prosperity
Kansas
It Ain't Over
Mitch
McConnell
Pretty Little
Liars
MORE BIG NEWS PAGES »
Ray Bradbury's FBI File
Why Does the World
Exist?
How to Talk to Little Girls
Michiko Kakutani's 11
Meanest Book Reviews
ricky_martin
RetweetMake Room for (the New) Daddy
http://t.co/Q6eIDokm via
@huffingtonpost
feliciaday
RetweetThink on it: Cambridge scientistssay all mammals, birds, many
others including octopi, have
human-like consciousness.http://t.co/aF6W2ZQh
FOLLOW BOOKS
Ray Bradbury FBI
File: Sci-Fi Legend
Suspected...
Reading Great
Writers' Worst
Books
Worst Book
Reviews: Michiko
Kakutani's 11
Meanest...
Reclaim Your Heart17. Undefeated: America's Heroic Fight For Bataan and Corregidor by Bill Sloan ** 1/2
18. Stoner by John Williams ****
19. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt *** 1/2
20. The 500 by Matthew Quirk **
21. The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton ****
22. The Alienist by Caleb Carr ***\
23. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi **
24. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household ***25. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky **
26. Traitor's Gate by Avi ** 1/2
27. Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins ***
28. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson *** 1/2
29. The Twelve Rooms Of The Nile by Enid Shomer ** 1/2
30. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel *** 1/231. In One Person by John Irving **32. A Million Heavens by John Brandon ***
33. The Case Of The Deadly Butter Chicken by Tarquin Hall ***
34. Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man by Walter Stahr *** 1/2
35. The Kings of Cool by Don Winslow ***
36. The Case of The Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall ***
37. Savages by Don Winslow ***38. The Case Of The Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall ***39. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris ***40. Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale **41. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker **42. The Panic of 1907 by Robert F. Bruner and Sean Carr ***
43. The House That Ruth Built by Robert Weintraub *** 1/2
44. I Am Spartacus: Making A Film, Breaking The Blacklist by Kirk Douglas *** 1/245. Showdown At Shepherd's Bush by David Davis ***46. Alif The Unseen by G. Willow Wilson ** 1/2
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion
makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also
available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.
Note : Michael Giltz is provided with free galleys and/or final copies of books to consider for review.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
More in Books...
Like 20k GET ALERTS
Comments 2 Pending Comments 0 View FAQ
Post Comment Preview Comment
Post to Facebook. Post to Blogger. Post to Twitter.
Post to WordPress. Post to TypePad. Post to Tumblr.To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the
comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly
underneath the comment you replied to.
Share your Comment:
11:34 AM on 07/11/2012
omg! i LOVE this series and i'm not much of a reader of stories set in countries other than the US (i
know, i know). but i love vish puri (chubby) and his cohorts and family. i've been waiting for this oneto come out! very excited.
11:18 AM on 07/14/2012
Thanks for commenting. If you were a fan of the first two, I'm certain you'll enjoy this onejust as much.
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User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | About Our Ads | Contact Us
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robynsc
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Michael Giltz
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