A terrorist bombing masks a cold-blooded murder...until Inspector Singh arrives.
Skittish suicide bomber Jimi prepares to drive his white Mitsubishi into Bali's popular and rather hedonistic Sari Club. Cut to dour Inspector Singh examining the wreckage of the club with brusque Bronwyn Taylor of the Australian Federal Police, whose vigor exacerbates Singh's already bad mood. Singh is overfond of his creature comforts, and knows that his bosses in Singapore love having him out of their hair. But he has no experience dealing with terrorist crimes, let alone scattered body parts. Meanwhile, bored, beautiful Sarah Crouch commiserates with her fellow idle Western visitors, the Yardleys and the Greenwoods, about the absence of her husband Richard. Little do they know that the couple is on the verge of divorce. Singh is inappropriately excited to find a bullet hole in the head of one victim, identified as Richard Crouch, and more than happy to investigate a certified murder. Non-grieving widow Sarah definitely goes to the top of the list of likely suspects, though Karri and Tim Yardley certainly arouse suspicion, as do a mismatched missionary couple named Nuri and Ghani who've come to godless Bali to build a religious school.
Singh's second case (Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder, 2010, etc.) is a solid, traditional whodunit with great chemistry between Singh and Bronwyn, a more in-your-face Archie Goodwin to Singh's Asian Nero Wolfe.
