Vikas Swarup

Culture in Translation: Like That, Talk We Don’t

By Leslie Gilbert Elman

June 5, 2011

Still wrapped in my dilemma over whether Indians really speak as they do in Tarquin Hall’s Vish Puri novels (The Case of the Missing Servant and The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing), I asked some Indian friends if, as I suspected, the peculiar syntax of dialog such as “Don’t do tension, sir,” was…

Cover of The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing by Tarquin Hall

Africa, India, and Alexander the Great

By Leslie Gilbert Elman

May 7, 2011

I like my cozies atmospheric and literate, and right now the prolific Alexander McCall Smith, who writes the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” books along with other series, is my benchmark cozy author. I’m looking for a backup.  The Man Who Died Laughing, is only Tarquin Hall’s second Vish Puri novel, and was selected by the…