On the cover:
In the house of Lala Verde, a vast man of even greater influenches, an attack has taken place. Varde’s secretary, Mr Perfect, has been struck on his invaluable business head. And try as Bombay CID’s Inspector Ghote might to remain conscientious and methodical, his investigation is beset on all sides by cunning, disdain and corruption. And then there’s the impossible theft of a single rupee to be dealt with…
What I thought:
I had high hopes for this novel. The premise was interesting and I like mystery and thriller novels. I also love to read about other cultures and so I was looking forward to reading this story set in India. To be honest I felt a little let down.
The plot started with promise but my problem was that all of the characters in this book irritated me in one way or another. I couldn’t connect with any of them. There wasn’t much characterisation of the protagonist and the unco-operativeness of the witnesses just made me want to scream. The plot moved along at a good pace but I think that the book could have been 100 pages shorter and the author still could have gotten in everything he needed to.
As to the conclusion, I normally love a mystery/thriller where I can try to piece the evidence together to see if I can solve it myself before the revelation, but it just wasn’t possible with this book. I can’t say too much without revealing spoilers so I will just say that I became very frustrated in the last third of the book.
This book did keep my interest but, ultimately, it was just average.
Source: This was a review copy from Amazon Vine
Publisher: This edition Penguin, 2011. First published by Collins 1964
Pages: 266
My Rating: 3 stars
