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OUT OF ORDER
by Charles Benoit
Poisoned Pen Press, February 2006
234 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1590582527


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Jason Talley is very fond of his orderly life. Unfortunately for him it soon spins totally OUT OF ORDER in this pleasant Indian mystery.

Jason's pleasures are few and well regulated, and he likes life that way. He might be only a paper-pusher at his insurance company in the US, but he has won several employee of the quarter awards, and for excitement he has his weekly dinners with his friends in the upstairs apartment, Sriram and Vidya Sundaram. One night Sriram asks Jason to hold onto a sari he was planning on giving his mother, explaining that he doesn't want Vidya to see it.

The very next day, the Sundarams are dead in an apparent murder/suicide. The couple are so lively and charming, it's really heartbreaking that they don't make it to chapter two. Grieving, Jason decides to deliver the sari as a memorial. Not knowing how to find the family, Jason sends a 'reply all' message to one of Sriram's mass emails.

He gets back a variety of offers to help him in his travels and this chilling warning from his boss: "There were things I didn't tell you about Sriram -- there are people out there who still blame Sriram for destroying their dreams and I'm afraid they might take their frustrations out on you. You have no idea of the role honor and revenge plays in Indian society."

Confused but undeterred, Jason plans for a very tidy trip, taking a slot in a retiree's tour and intending to spend his free time talking to Sriram's friends. But that is before beautiful, impulsive, lying Rachel talks him out of leaving the tour, a monkey steals his backpack containing the sari, a man tries to stab him to death in public, someone offers hundreds of dollars for information on his itinerary, and things get really crazy.

Apparently Sriram once worked for a dot-com start-up called Bangalore Worldwide Systems, which was sabotaged soon after he left. Everyone involved thought Sriram did it, either hating or forgiving him depending on their fortunes after the company crashed, but Jason isn't so sure. Would the Sriram he knew have done such a thing? Would the Sriram he knew have really killed his wife and himself? And what is going on with the red sari?

Fans of Bollywood (which, we are reminded, makes the most popular films in the world) will really enjoy this book as it romps through all aspects of India from a high-powered celebrity party through the worst rotting slums. Fans of madcap hijinks will enjoy watching Jason rebuild his life as he is ripped completely free of everything he thought was important. And fans of espionage will be challenged to figure out who to trust and who is lying as Jason meets the former members of Bangalore Worldwide Systems.

Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, January 2006

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