The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (Vish Puri 3)

Author/Guide: Tarquin Hall

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: The Punjabi Poirot is back with another cracking case. And Delhi is once again brought to lip smacking life.

ISBN: 978-0099561873
Genre: Crime, Humour, Mystery

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What you need to know before your trail

Vish Puri, a detective known as chubby by his family is no stranger to the delicious delicacy that is butter chicken. So when he attends an India Premier League cricket match dinner, he’s the first to tuck in. Irfan Khan, the father of Pakistani star cricketer Kamran Khan, can’t resist either. But the creamy dish proves his undoing. After a few mouthfuls, he collapses on the floor, dead.

Delhi belly or something a lot more sinister?

Vish Puri is on the case – which of the Bollywood stars, politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists could have wanted to poison Khan and why?

Locations

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Travel Guide

( Don’t forget to visit the very fun interactive website of the man himself! – vishpuri.com )

Food

Needless to say, we started salivating for the tastes of India as soon as we saw the cover and the title of the book. India is evoked in every sense of the word here – sights, smells, sounds and wonderful vivid images. The case of the poisoned man soon has Vish getting involved with some of the most glamourous people in Delhi society and together with the vivid food imagery, this creates a fantastic story built on so many layers.

Many layers of India

Bollywood, politicians, and the high flying business men soon become the worlds that Vish has to immerse himself in in order to solve the crime. And its not going to be easy getting through al of those glass ceilings and sparkling facades.

India and cricket

But its a world where nothing is as it seems and where the glitz and the glamour here can be quite deceiving. At the same time however Vish makes his way through the new and exciting game of cricket that India seems to be enamoured with and all that that entails. The Delhi of old is still there however – the markets, busy streets and the roaming animals paint a full picture of a Delhi moving forward whilst also retaining its past.

Caste system

Sadly some of this past seems to involve corruption and the caste system. The diamond trade is a major part of the investigation – Vishi travels out to Surat to investigate the diamond trade and soon finds out about the secretive ‘Angadias’, the diamond couriers who blend seamlessly into the background. To state his contempt at the system, Vish calls this ‘ An unparalleled parallel system.’