The Case of the Man who Died Laughing (Vish Puri 2)

The wonderful second outing for Delhi detective Vish Puri. 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. As the media go into a frenzy, it becomes clear that the case goes to the heart of the battle between superstition and rationality in modern India. But the fact remains that a murder has been committed and one man is perfectly placed to investigate: the portly detective Vish Puri.