The case of the man who died laughing by Tarquin Hall

"The case of the man who died laughing" by Tarquin Hall. This is the second book of Vish Puri mysteries and is 320 pages long.

Dr. Jha, an ex professor and a well known personality, also called 'Guru buster', who has exposed a number of gurus and God men as frauds; is killed while laughing with his 'laughing club' mates. The killer is none other than 20 ft tall goddess Kali floating in air and the murder weapon, a sword, turns to dust after the killing. Dr. Jha was trying to expose a politically connected guru Maharaj Swami.

Vish Puri is called by Inspector in charge for investigating the murder in an unofficial capacity. Puri is convinced that illusion, rather than divine intervention, was used for the murder. But he is short of evidence. His assistants facecream and tubelight are pressed into service. Facecream, a beautiful young woman and reformed Maoist from Nepal, goes undercover.

There are two more murders. A conspiracy comes to light. What is it? Who is the murderer? Can Vish Puri live up to his reputation and solve the case? Will the political interference stop him? Is Maharaj Swami a fake?

The story has  steady pace. Vish Puri's characteristics have  similarities to Hercule Poirot. Again the author, who is not an Indian, has demonstrated his power of observation while creating an Indian set up by using details of everyday life, Indian English and attitude towards everything. In this book he has gone to the extent of describing god bharai (गोद भराई) ceremony in detail.

A parallel investigation by Vish Puri's mummyji appears in this story as well. I am not sure why author choose to add a side story that has no relevance to main story. The side story dilutes the main story.  More page space should have been given to the character of Maharaj Swami. Otherwise the story is OK.

The character of Dr. Jha seems to be based on real life figure of Dr. Narendra Dabholkar of Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (अंधश्रद्धा निर्मूलन समिती). This book was, however, written before the real murder of Dr. Dabholkar.

It's a decent book. Read for fun if you have time.