Crime Mystery set in MUMBAI

• Book: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
• Location: Mumbai (Bombay)
• Author: Vaseem Khan

Review Author: tripfiction

I can say without fear of contradiction that I am an expert in the tribulations faced by murder investigators in England and Scotland (you’d think they’d be the same but they’re not), Sweden, Norway and Denmark (ditto), the US, Botswana and Italy. You could set me an exam comparing and contrasting ways to establish times of death, types of murder weapons and methods of criminal profiling in these countries and I flatter myself that I’d stand a fair chance of passing.

Having established my credentials, believe me when I say that The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan is a worthy addition to the genre. Indeed, for fans of the popular series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, I can say that Inspector Ashwin Chopra is the Precious Ramotswe of the Indian sub-continent – and I mean that in the most positive way. Like her, he’s incorruptible in a corrupt environment, wise where others are foolish, modest among crowds of flashy ne’er-do-wells and, like all good detectives excepting that old bore Hercule Poirot, he has got his share of family troubles to remind us that despite his talent for taking down villains, he’s human after all.

In The Unexpected inheritance of Inspector Chopra, not only do we get to spend time with this appealing hero, we get to experience the sights and sounds of Mumbai, although luckily without being exposed to its heat and smells. We learn a little about the problems facing modern India, its chaotic streets, its cut-throat politics, the scale of poverty and the near impossibility of avoiding corruption. In short, we make the acquaintance of the ugly side of this gigantic city, which, judging from this novel is a city where people happily dispose of each other in rather gruesome ways.

However, Mumbai is also an energetic, confident, inventive city – and what with what strikes me as more than a passing similarity to a hot Dickensian London a hundred and fifty years on. Despite the corpses and the guns the overall tone of the book is warm, human and domestic and as if that isn’t enough to make you want to read it, you also get to make the acquaintance of a baby elephant who may or may not be a reincarnation of the hero’s uncle.

I challenge you not to be charmed.

This review first appeared on our blog where we chat to Vaseem about writing and Mumbai

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