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The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck

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The Case of the Elusive Bombay Duck

By: Tarquin Hall
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
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About this listen

Portly, perceptive, and spectacularly moustachioed, India’s finest private detective, Vish Puri, tackles his most difficult case to date, in Tarquin Hall’s delightful humorous whodunit series set in New Delhi.

For Vish Puri, India’s most private detective, the news that he has won the long-coveted International Detective of the Year award, to be presented in a glitzy ceremony in London, makes this the best day of his life.

But to his deep dismay, a senior bureaucrat from the Ministry of Finance gives him a secret mission he can’t refuse: to track down India’s most-wanted fugitive. Dr. Bhatt’s medicines caused the deaths of hundreds, and the billionaire fraudster—code named the Bombay Duck—fled for the United Kingdom before he could be arrested.

Puri is only spending a week in London. He has never set foot in the UK before. And most important of all, he has already promised his wife that he won’t do any work while they’re away.

There’s only one solution: lie, lie, lie.

Puri dives headfirst into the case, in between visiting all the tourist sites, aided and abetted by his formidable, meddling Mummy-ji, whom Puri definitely did not invite to join them. But can Puri hook the Bombay Duck and bring him to justice before the fugitive’s many enemies get to him first?

Packed with the sights, sounds, and flavors of both New Delhi and London, this is an irresistible listen for fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Harini Nagendra, and Jesse Sutanto from an author who divides his time between India and the United Kingdom.

©2025 Tarquin Hall (P)2025 Blackstone Publishing
International Mystery & Crime Mystery Private Investigators Witty United Kingdom Detective
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The story took a while to hot up because I was so thrown by the new narrator. He didn’t do a bad job (apart from the Australian English accents on occasion!) but as Zara Ramm is Maxwell, Hugh Fraser is Captain Hastings and Stephen Fry is Harry Potter, Sam Dastor is Puri.

The story was entertaining but not my favourite. I’ll still listen to it again though and I’m sure it will grow on me.

And I’m still looking forward to the next book because I love This series.

Another great story. I really missed Sam Dastor’s narration

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The Vish Puri series is totally charming. The plots are good, the characters engaging and I love the humour interwoven in them. I've listened to all of them and The Elusive Bombay Duck is just as good as the rest.

Warm-hearted detective story

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a good original story and a friendly cast of characters as always.
intriguing murder plot

a great story and narrator

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The narrator did not manage to create distinctive voices for each character and when female characters in particular were talking together it became difficult and confusing to know who said what - a totally different attitude to the earlier audio books in the series more aggressive and less humour - Sam Dastor makes the characters totally individual and fun in the other Vish Puri books - I kept loosing the thread of this story and was glad to reach the end. I doubt that I will listen to it again yet I love to re-listen to the earlier books in the series. Bring back Sam Dastor please.

Why the different narrator?

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What possessed you to ditch Sam Dastor? I don't know if his Indian accents were not that good, for all I know the new narrator might be more accurate... But I DO know the attempts at English accents are dire. All I could hear was the wombat nephew from the Compare the Market adverts every time Jags spoke...
Cornish pastie pronounced pay-stee? Dear God, it was all over the shop. Occasionally I think there was some Bristolean in there. A touch of Irish... Definitely Aussie. Move over Dick van Dyke, there's a new butcher-in-chief of the London vernacular. I am struggling to finish this. So disappointing.

The awful narration

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