Cosy crime tales for the holidays

THRILLING summer reads.

THRILLING summer reads.

INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES A CURIOUS INDIAN CADAVER
BY SHAMINI FLINT

CANTANKEROUS Singaporean policeman Inspector Singh is in Mumbai to attend the wedding of the daughter of one of his wife's cousins but India's craziest city presents challenges in the guise of Mrs Singh's formidable family, who could know more than they're letting on about the disappearance of Ashu, the bride-to-be. Then a charred corpse is found ... is it Ashu? (Hachette, $19.99.)

SLASH AND BURN
BY COLIN COTTERILL

THE latest novel starring Laos's most senior (and only) coroner, the septuagenarian Dr Siri, and his sensible wife, Madame Daeng, is a convoluted mystery set in the country's mountainous north. The plot is more ambitious than earlier outings in this popular series but there's the usual cast of questionable characters and supernatural happenings, this time involving a lost CIA pilot and a delegation of American odd-bods. (Quercus, $24.99.)

THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU
BY MICHAEL STANLEY

JOHANNESBURG academics Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip write under the joint name of Michael Stanley; their likable gumshoe is Botswana's Detective Kubu, a chap who insists on three square meals a day and a good supply of steelworks (tonic, bitters and ginger beer). You'll find Kubu in especially fine and nosy form in this mystery based around Jackalberry bush camp. (HarperCollins, $23.95.)

SKIOS
BY MICHAEL FRAYN

IDENTITY theft is the lark at the heart of this wicked farce set on an imaginary Greek isle. International playboy Oliver Fox is always up for jolly japes, free meals and the possibility of a good snog. Easy, then, to pose as the keynote speaker at an obscure cultural conference and to dazzle all and sundry with charm, wit and wiles. Skios was longlisted for the 2012 Man Booker prize -- it's a crime it didn't win. (Faber & Faber, $29.99.)