Allow me to introduce you to a mystery story, unlike any other you have experienced. Not only is The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra set in India, the story brings to life the integrated complexities that make India so fascinating with culture, history and societal conventions so different from our own.

Book Review:

I’ll be honest, it was the synopsis and the fact this title was set in India that had me curious: even though I’m not a huge mystery reader I was expecting a twist on the more well-known stories by Alexander McCall Smith and his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, rich with the feel, life and people.  And Vaseem Khan completely met and exceeded those expectations with this book.

Oh of course, it is a crime fiction story, and there are moments that hit that disturbing mark of ‘how could anyone do that’, but Chopra is so engaging and likable, flamboyant with a great deal of optimism and hope for good things to happen, it is hard not to be influenced by his manner.  His wife, complete with a subplot of her own, is also fascinating, and the images, scenes and feel of the setting are so vividly presented you can almost scent the breeze on the air.

I don’t believe that anyone can resist a baby elephant, and there are so many sweet (yes – this story is at its heart, incredibly sweet) scenes as Chopra takes this unexpected life into his keeping, and the two travel on to discover the many correlations between them. Oh the mystery was clever, but presented in a way that just felt like days in the life. Lyrical and near poetic, the writing is smooth and the imagery is solid and evocative.  I tend to the lighter side of the mystery genre, it’s often the characters and settings that draw me in and have me returning to an author: I’ll certainly be looking forward to the next from Vaseem Khan.

Title: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
Author: Vaseem Khan
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton
Published on: 13 August, 2015
Format:eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Pages: 296
Audio Length: 7 Hours: 17 minutes
Rated:
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Mumbai, murder and a baby elephant combine in a charming, joyful mystery for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Rachel Joyce.

On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries.

The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved.

And the second is a baby elephant.

As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought.

And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs...

A copy of this title was provided via Publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

About Vaseem Khan

Vaseem Khan is the author of 'The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra', first in the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series set in India and featuring a baby elephant! He first saw an elephant lumbering down the middle of the road in 1997 when he arrived in the city of Mumbai, India to work as a management consultant. It was the most unusual sight he had ever encountered and served as the inspiration behind his light-hearted crime novels.

Vaseem was born in London in 1973, went on to gain a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, before spending a decade on the subcontinent helping one of India's premier hotel groups establish a chain of five-star environmentally friendly 'ecotels' around the country. He returned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Security and Crime Science. Elephants are third on his list of passions, first and second being great literature and cricket, not always in that order.

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