Moghul Buffet

by Cheryl Benard

Book Overview

The disappearance of an American businessman in Pakistan sets in motion a series of murders in this clever mystery where East meets West. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569471797
• ISBN13: 9781569471791
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Soho Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Timely and interesting

When businessman Micky Malone disappears from Peshawar on the Pakistani/Afghan border, the Pakistani government becomes alarmed and sends out Detective Iqbal to investigate. As the body count rises Iqbal struggles to find the murderer. He is hampered by his lack of understanding about how the women of Pakistan think and this leads to a great many comic moments and wrong deductions during the investigation. This is a fascinating look at a country in turmoil and also features a brief glimpse of the Taliban before they came to power in Afghanistan

Excellent

Moghul Buffet is extremely well written. The characters are funny and each and every one of them is likeable in their own way. The author does a good job of portraying life in Peshawar, especially for women. I like that the novel does not insult Pakistani culture by pointing out its faults. Instead, it tells of things as they are and it showcases characters who are trying to make a change. Moghul Buffet is a refreshing read. Interesting and full of amusing twists and turns. My favorite aspect of the novel is how things are explained for the coincidences and misunderstandings that they are. The narrator doesn't attempt to fool the reader, instead he/she is involved in understanding why it is that characters are led to believe certain things. A simply wonderful novel.

Read this book, then buy it!!

That's precisely what I did; took it off the shelf in the public library and then, once I'd finished the book (getting snagged on the solution of the mystery at the very end), went out and bought it for my personal collection. Benard is a rare author; her language is as humorous & elegant as it is simple, she spins a good yarn and, most important of all, she has her facts right. Ask me about the facts. I am an anthropologist from the Indian subcontinent of which Pakistan is a part. And male to boot. All too often I come across a potentially good story which is ruined by the setting; the places are hardly real, the people seem all wrong, the evidence which forms the basis for the plot is like a house of cards. Benard may call her writing "pop sociology," but if such fiction is proof of what she's capable of may she write on.

The Sunni keep rolling along

This book has a multitude of murders, but it is not a murder mystery.It is quite funny, yet is not a comedy. Instead, it is a magnificent satire, sending up the Pathans, the North West Frontier, the Sunnis and Shiites, the chador and the burka, and - above all - the male species. I learned more from this book than from a whole year of the New York Times. Anybody who wants to know what is being played in Pakistan, and also in Afghanistan, should read this book. It gives you all the inside story and lowdown. Magnificent!

A fascinating, fun look at sex and murder in modern Pakistan

This is a very witty, fast-paced story set in Pakistan that opens with the disappearance and presumed death of a visiting American businessman. A local inspector is assigned to find the murderer, and we meet many strange and wonderful characters along the way, from the local television preacher who believes soccer is a big cause of sexual deviancy to the chauffeur who seems more interested in liberating young women politically than sexually to the servant girl who is maybe a bit more than a servant girl. These characters and their stories are the best part about the novel, which turns out to be much more than a mystery - it's a tour through a backwater town and its customs that tells us as much about how men and women treat each other here in the West as in this distant, exotic land. With a voice funny and biting and wise, MOGHUL BUFFET marks the debut of a wonderful writer.