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Reading Slothfully
I was told in elementary school that I only could read at half the speed for success in college. Oh well, one benefit of slow reading is you get to live with the characters a longer period of time. I read in a vain attempt to better understand people. At my other homes, I'm known as a spouse, pop, guy in the choir, physical chemist, computer/web dilettante and child-care provider. In theory, I'm a published author, if you consider stuff like Quenching Cross Sections for Electronic Energy Transfer Reactions Between Metastable Argon Atoms and Noble Gases and Small Molecules to count as publications. I've strewn dozens of such fascinating things to the winds.
Currently reading
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
The Spirit of the Border
Ramona the Brave (Ramona, #3)
The Underground Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Delilah of the Snows
Mrs. Miniver
Betsy-Tacy Treasury (P.S.)
A Christmas Carol
The Way Some People Die
Envy of Angels
The Case of the Missing Servant
My spouse thought I should read this book. It was a dead-tree book, but interesting, none the less. The interest in this book is that it is written about an Indian private detective, i.e. a private detective living in the country of India. Which is to say, this book is not at all like the books about Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, who are "Indian" private detectives living in the Four Corners area of the U.S.A. Now days, we refer to those "Indians" as being "Native Americans". Perhaps "Indigenous Americans" would be a better term, given that I'm a Native American by dint of having been born here. But I digress. Anyway, the interest for my spouse, was to learn something about the culture of India. So, Vish Puri, aka "Chubby", is a private detective in India. He is hired to find some dirt on the potential son-in-law of a very rich guy. Obviously, the rich guy doesn't want him for a son-in-law. Then, a rich and powerful lawyer gets into a bit of trouble and hopes Vish will bail him out. It seems that he has been accused of being responsible for the rape and murder of a young woman who had been a servant in his household. The murder rap came some months after the body had been found. The servant girl went missing about the same time. It's not completely clear, however, that the body is actually that of the missing servant. It's just a similar size and shape...or something.
So, Vish, is to figure out whether or not the body is the missing servant, or if the girl is actually out somewhere hiding among the billion folks in India's hinterlands. It doesn't help that no one really knows the girl's origins, or anything much more about her than her first name. They don't even have a decent picture. But Vish, who runs The Most Private Investigator, and in his estimation, India's greatest detective, head and shoulders above lesser lights such as Sherlock Holmes, and his gang of helpers, Handbrake, Doorstop, Facecream, etc. pursue all leads ruthlessly and eventually figure out what's important to know about the prospective bridegroom and the missing servant girl. Quite fun!
