Murder at the Grand Raj Palace by Vaseem Khan

A book I picked up at Mount Waverley library - one where I hope to go to frequently and pick out as many books as I possibly can get hold of! A book of the Baby Ganesh series, we have Inspector Chopra - recently retired - set up his detective agency and highly respected by the Bombay detective force. When an American millionaire is found with a sabre in his chest, the local police turn to Inspector Chopra to find out what he could. The story has also another side story of a missing bride whose wedding is being hosted in the same hotel - this bride is a princess of a minor royalty and Inspector Chopra's wfe Poppy gets unwittingly drawn into that drama and that detective story. The death of the billionaire however is a complicated story - going back over thirty years to a small village and once Chopra gets his hands on the case, he is not letting go. His tenaciousness and clever detective skills go laboriously over every person who stood to lose (or gain) by the man's death and what he discovers is something that is going to make a lot of people unhappy including the government. Though not directly said, it has tones of the Bhopal disaster with the loss of hundreds of lives and though that was not hushed up, this story involves many people in a cover up and several murders happening before this particular one at the Hotel. Poppy's search for the missing bride involves an equally complicated course and that ends well. The bride is found, explanations are given and it is a happy ending. In our American billionaire's death everything is concluded and handed over to the authorities. Lighthearted with the addition of Baby Ganesha (the elephant) monkeys, a south indian film crea and many extras the murder detective part was fabulous and detailed.