Showing posts with label private investigators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label private investigators. Show all posts
Nov 17, 2018
Nov 16, 2018
Jun 1, 2018
Dec 1, 2017
Oct 1, 2017
Feb 1, 2017
Jul 1, 2016
Oct 1, 2015
The case of the man who died laughing - Tarquin Hall
Summary: A prominent Indian scientist dies in a fit of giggles when a Hindu goddess appears from a mist and plunges a sword into his chest. The main suspect is a powerful guru named Maharaj Swami, who seems to have done away with his most vocal critic. Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator, master of disguise and lover of all things fried and spicy, doesn't believe the murder is a supernatural occurrence, and proving who really killed Dr. Suresh Jha will require all the detective's earthly faculties. To get at the truth, he and his team of undercover operatives travel from the slum where India's hereditary magicians must be persuaded to reveal their secrets to the holy city of Haridwar on the Ganges.
Kirkus Reviews
Vish Puri (The Case of the Missing Servant, 2009, etc.) takes a break from vetting prospective bridegrooms to investigate a murder that defies all reason.Once the Hindu masters taught the virtues of poverty. But in modern India, prosperity and devotion go hand in hand, at least at the Abode of Eternal Love, where well-heeled worshippers gather to revere the Maharaj Swami, who summons the Vedic sage Bharadwaja before their amazed eyes. No wonder famed Guru Buster Dr. Suresh Jha has targeted the swami in his campaign against the holy men Jha claims delude the people with superstition. Then, to the shock of his fellow rationalists, Jha is dispatched by the goddess Kali, 20-feet tall and hovering above the ground, as his fellow members of the Rajpath Laughing Club watch in horror. Inspector Jagar Prakash Singh of the Delhi police wastes no time in engaging the help of India's Most Private Investigator. Although respectful of his ancestors' religion, Vish Puri suspects that the swami had a hand in Jha's impossible death. To find out how, the safari-suited sleuth must travel to the hidden quarter of Shadipur, home to Delhi's famed magicians. While his loyal wife Rumpi stays home awaiting the arrival of their daughter Jaiya's twins and his beloved Mummy-ji chases the thief who stole the proceeds of her first kitty party, Puri consults Akbar the Great and Manish the Magnificent to see through the illusion straight to the crime.As tasty as Puri's favorite aloo parantha. Copyright Kirkus 2010 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
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Mar 10, 2015
Dick Francis's Refusal - Felix Francis
Summary: "Dick Francis's beloved investigator Sid Halley returns in the riveting new mystery by New York Times-bestselling author Felix Francis. Six years ago, investigator Sid Halley retired for good. He'd been harassed, beaten, shot, even lost a hand to his investigating business, and enough was enough. For the sake of his wife and new daughter he gave up that life of danger and uncertainty, and he thought nothing would ever lure him back into the game. He thought wrong. Sir Richard Stewart, chairman of the racing authority, begs Sid to investigate a series of dodgy races. Sid adamantly refuses, but the following day, Sir Richard is found dead under suspicious circumstances. And then a man with an Irish accent contacts Sid, telling him to deliver a whitewashed report about the suspected race-fixing. or else. At first Sid ignores these warnings, knowing that once he submits to this criminal bully, he will forever be under his control. But as the intimidation tactics escalate-and Sid's own family comes under threat-Sid realizes he must meet his enemy head-on. or he might pay the ultimate price for his refusal"-- Provided by publisher.
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* In the steeplechase world, "refusal" means that a horse will not take a jump. Dick Francis' son Felix, collaborator with his father on several novels and now the heir to his father's line of mysteries, extends the equestrian definition to the massively banged-up (physically and emotionally) Sid Halley, who stars in a Francis novel for the first time since 2006. Halley, a champion steeplechase jockey who lost his left hand to the double whammy of a fall from a horse and an attack by a thug, long ago turned his insider's knowledge of the race world into private investigative work. But an intense fear campaign directed at his girlfriend made him retire from the track altogether at the end of Under Orders. When the chairman of the British Racing Authority asks Halley to investigate his strong suspicion that races are being fixed, Halley refuses. Even after the chairman is found dead, threats made to Halley's family, and his daughter placed in danger, Halley still refuses, holding onto the safety of his family, which he knows would be blown apart by his investigating the case. What finally tips Halley into changing his mind is entirely convincing, even though it ratchets up the danger for Halley and his family. This is fascinating reading on every level, from the neatly calibrated plot, moving from suspense to terror, to all the details of the racing world Francis provides. Halley is now, as before, an utterly complex, interest-holding character. And the final, moral turn that Francis makes of "refusal" is brilliant. A heroic return for Sid Halley. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.
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Mar 1, 2015
Blacksad - Juan Diaz Canales
Summary: "Private investigator John Blacksad is up to his feline ears in mystery and intrigue, digging up the backstories behind murders, child abductions, and nuclear secrets during the 1950s Red Scare in the United States."--P. [4] of cover.
Library Journal Reviews
A European classic reappears in English, and a rich gift it is. This noir thriller set in 1950s America stars a cast of anthropomorphic animals, with the dirty-handed hero an impeccably trenchcoated black cat. John Blacksad is a sort of private investigator, and these three stories visit territory both familiar and unusual. Our hero's lost love is inexplicably murdered, a misinterpreted killing rocks a white supremacist movement, and a coterie of radical intelligentsia crosses agendas with a version of Commie-hunter Joe McCarthy. The second story, especially, offers complex and subtle plotting that earned an Angoulême award. But story aside, Blacksad soars on the art. If anyone could convince you that animal-headed beings could be real, these artists do. The evocative character renditions, draftsmanship, and painted colors simply take the breath away, from the polar bear police chief turned bad to the hog bartender, cockerel "Senator Gallo" (McCarthy), and bad guy reptilians. VERDICT A prime ambassador for the adult comic, Blacksad reinvents funny animals to a whole new purpose: suspenseful, sophisticated, and beautifully visualized drama with violence and sensual sex quite appropriate to plot and readership. Highly recommended for adult collections.—M.C.
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Nov 1, 2013
The cuckoo's calling - Robert Galbraith
Summary: "After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man."--Dust jacket.
Booklist Reviews
London PI Cormoran Strike's final feud with his arguably insane fiancée leaves him camping in his office, wondering how his last two clients will keep him afloat and pay for his new secretary, Robin. When a childhood acquaintance asks him to investigate his supermodel sister's apparent suicide, Strike finds a distraction from his problems that's happily attached to a check. Lula Landry was surrounded by rabid paparazzi, a drug-addled social circle, a dysfunctional adopted family, and a shifty, newly found birth mother, making suicidal despair hard to dismiss. But with Robin's surprisingly adept assistance, Strike dismantles witness statements, applying masterful deductive skills to find evidence of murder. This debut is instantly absorbing, featuring a detective facing crumbling circumstances with resolve instead of clichéd self-destruction and a lovable sidekick with contagious enthusiasm for detection. Galbraith nimbly sidesteps celebrity superficiality, instead exploring the ugly truths in Lula's six degrees of separation. Strike bears little resemblance to Jackson Brodie, but Kate Atkinson's fans will appreciate his reliance on deduction and observation along with Galbraith's skilled storytelling. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.
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