I actually laughed out loud reading this! I love, love, love the indubitable detective Vish Puri and the indomitable Mummi-ji, along with the rest of the zany cast of characters that made this book (and all the others in the series) so much fun to read, and every time I read one of these books, I get an insatiable hunger for Indian food, and without fail, I end up making the long drive to my not-so-local Indian buffet to satisfy it! Good book + good food = good fun! ( )

Totally delightful Indian mystery complete with a hard working, food loving Detective, his family and his staff.

Vish Puri is the owner of a successful Detective Agency. A cold case from his father has been brought to his notice by his mother. Mummy-ji wants his assistance, and of course she wants in on the action.
This was very much a feel good Bollywood style mystery that edges onto farcical but remains within the circle of fascinating intrigue, being both humorous and mysterious. Mummy-ji is somewhat the bane of Puri's existence. She calls him Chubby, and is desperate to help her son solve cases. Of course Puri doesn't want his mother muddying the waters, but somehow Mummy-ji inserts herself into the investigation and et voilà, finds out something new. And then there's the added positive, Mummy-ji is able to ask questions and go places that Puri can't. Not that Puri is even aware of these places half the time. That is until his mother alerts him.
I loved that Mummy-ji's old phone completely circumnavigated any searches for her by sophisticated machinery the tech's used when Puri was trying to find her.
Added to Puri grief on a personal level, he believed in cash not banks and so when the government put strictures in place to thwart black monies in the economy, Puri was caught short. His poor employees are paid in cash. Puri does everything in cash!
Our foodie detective quite undid me with the rather mouth watering descriptions of the food encountered every which way throughout the story.
I didn't really know what I was getting into with this Indian detective novel. A mystery that opens up the past for Puri and the Anti-Sikh Riots of October-November 1984. Parts of the story are historically accurate and form a springboard for Puri's investigations.
A heartwarming mystery and I loved every moment of it!

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley ( )

I enjoy this series so much that I had to go to Flavors of India to eat onion bhajis and lamb biryani afterward-- especially since it's been a few years since the last Vish Puri mystery, and The Case of the Reincarnated Client met and exceeded all my expectations. You can enjoy this series for the mouth-watering food (I'd never tried it until I made Vish Puri's acquaintance) or the (often) laugh-out-loud humor or all the things you can learn about both modern-day and historical India or the interactions between the marvelous characters... or you can just enjoy the excellent mysteries. But when you can combine all of these into one series or one book, it's magic.

The humor comes into play when Puri faces the possible demise of his beloved car, but it is also scattered throughout the story. But everything isn't all slapstick and laughs. The author can also make you furious or make you want to cry. The main mystery involves a woman who disappeared during the terrible riots following Indira Gandhi's assassination and justice is the major theme-- both of obtaining it for Riya Kaur and for its total absence in the wake of those riots.

India's demonetization also brings forth another element of mystery, and while Puri is traveling around the city to keep up with all his cases, readers experience New Delhi's pollution. So much of modern Indian life is explored here that I want to talk about it all-- and I know that I can't because I want you to read this book. It's all seamlessly woven into the story in such a way that you can almost feel as though you're actually there as you read. Perfect for armchair travelers, eh?

And The Case of the Reincarnated Client is also perfect for armchair sleuths. Can justice be brought to a money launderer and to Riya Kaur? Can an irate matrimonial client be made happy and forget to file a lawsuit? If anyone can do all this, it's Vish Puri. Fans of this series, rejoice. Vish is back! Those of you new to the series, I envy you. You have so much good reading ahead of you! ( )

My feelings about Tarquin Hall's The Case of the Reincarnated Client are mixed, but I will admit that they got more enthusiastic as I kept reading. This is an interesting series, set in modern-day Mumbai, one that I've been wanting to check out. Beginning with the fifth book in the series probably wasn't the best way to do things, but that's what I did.

The fact that this is a series matters immensely. Readers are assumed to know something about the relationships among the characters, to anticipate how they will respond in specific situations, to foresee points of conflict or humor. Because I didn't know the characters, I was reading in a sort of back-pedaling way. Hall would signal that something should be surprising or funny, and I had to take that on trust, realizing a few pages or chapters later what the surprise or the joke was.

The book is pretty extensively footnoted, commenting on references to previous cases, presumably from volumes 1-4. I have to acknowledge that this is a device I don't enjoy. I want a book to succeed or fail on its own, without requiring regular bits of explanation. If I need to know something, tell the story in a way that makes that something clear—don't pull me out of the narrative to explain that something then expect me to move right back in again.

That said, I really did warm to this book, though that didn't start happening until after the halfway point. Once I'd spent enough time with the characters to get to know them a bit, I was able to do the kind of anticipating and appreciating I'd been missing earlier on. I particularly enjoyed the author's ability to blend humorous and serious plot lines.

The novel juggles several related cases. The one referred to in the title gets the most coverage. Vish Puri, owner of The Most Private Detective Agency gets pulled in by his mother, Mummy-ji, to investigate a woman who may be the reincarnation of the victim of an unsolved murder from the anti-Sikh riots og 1984. The case is significant for Chubby (that's what everyone call Vish) because his deceased father, a police officer, had led the original investigation. Added to that case are a number of variations on money-laundering, necessitated by the government's cancellation of a particular monetary denomination—intended to prevent fraud, but actually sparking all kinds of new fraud as individuals try to unload any bills of the the soon-to-be-cancelled denomination before they become worthless. Finally, there a problem with a bridegroom Chubby previously investigated (apparently a fairly typical assignment for a private detective in this part of the world) who has turned out to be an unbearably loud snorer. The bride's father, who had commissioned the initial investigation, threatens to sue Chubby for failing to discover and report on the snoring issue before the marriage took place. Lots of cases, lots of humor, occasional real danger.

If you like "cozy" mysteries with an international flair, you should enjoy The Case of the Reincarnated Client, though you may want to work through the series sequentially.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. ( )