Duellist and gamester, the young Marquis of Vidal had fairly earned the sobriquet 'Devil's Cub' - a tribute to the wilder excesses of his father, the Duke of Avon.When Mary Challoner discovered Dominic's plans to run away with her lovely sister, she donned cloak and mask in a daring impersonation and found herself bound for France with the most notorious rake in Georgian London.The many admirers of These Old Shades will meet some familiar friends.
Meet Vish Puri, India?s most private investigator. Portly, persistent and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swathe through modern India?s swindlers, cheats and murderers.In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centres and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri?s main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri?s resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking pot shots at him and his prize chilli plants? And why is his widowed 'Mummy-ji? attempting to play sleuth when everyone knows Mummies are not detectives?With his team of undercover operatives - Tubelight, Flush and Facecream - Puri ingeniously combines modern techniques with principles of detection established in India more than two thousand years ago -- long before 'that Johnny-come-lately? Sherlock Holmes donned his Deerstalker.The search for Mary takes him to the desert oasis of Jaipur and the remote mines of Jharkhand. From his well-heeled Gymkhana Club to the slums where the servant classes live, Puri?s adventures reveal modern India in all its seething complexity.
Early one morning, on the lawns of a grand boulevard in central Delhi, a group of professionals are attending their therapeutic Laughing Club when a 20-foot apparition of the Goddess Kali apppears, and strikes one of their number dead.The goddess disappears without trace, and soon news of the crime has all India agog.
Quando accoglie in casa la giovane e deliziosa nipote Sophy, Lady Ombersley è ben lontana dall'immaginarsi quello che la ragazza è capace di scatenare. E neppure il figlio Charles, assai meno dolce e arrendevole di lei, ne ha una vaga idea. Sophy è infatti a dir poco inarrestabile nel voler risolvere i problemi altrui e dipanare i grovigli sentimentali di chi le sta attorno; inoltre non dimentica i suoi affari. Anche di cuore. Insomma, pare che nessuno sia in grado di fermarla, tranne, forse, proprio Charles. Ammesso che lo voglia...