Redhook Books

Retirement isn’t a reward for Inspector Chopra who has been forced into a long-term holiday by a weak heart and a forceful wife. But he will not go willingly as he sees a new case in the form of a drowned boy whose mother demands justice for her son. She is battling the power of the political world and the higher echelon of the police department, and Inspector Chopra becomes not only her champion but also that of a baby elephant left to him by his uncle. The elephant, Ganesha, won’t eat, looks sad, and mopes around the yard and finally the living room where the maternal instincts of Poppy Chopra, who may not have wanted an elephant in the apartment, take over. The elephant is a key player in the tale, as is Mumbai and its teeming neighborhoods, as Inspector Chopra and Ganesha walk the streets of the city searching for justice for the drowned boy and his mother. They meet the poorest of the poor and the most corrupt of the rich in a mystery that contains both the sadness of the world and the lightness of a detective who knows how to manipulate authority until he gets what he wants. – Wendy Foster Leigh