An autographed copy, home delivered, no less.
Excitement!My first on this blog.
A book Review.
The bestest selling author worldwide and a best selling author India wide.
James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi.
Crime and murder and passion and investigation and suspicion really get me going. I love the LSD in the printed word,( The Love ,sex and Dhokha-betrayal for the non bollywood types) and the blood and the gore and the guns and the machinations and the works.
Very James Patterson.
And I have never read Ashwin Sanghi before this book.
I am a big James Patterson fan though. Alex Cross and Jack Morgan are familiar to me like the dust on my book shelves and shoe racks.
Familiar and comfortable.(I only clean when my sneezing begins)
And here hobbles in a very world weary Chief of the Indian bureau of Private, Santosh Wagh, and his motley crew of emotion disasters and orphans and those who have been hurt by the ubiquitous oppressor, the US of A.
Jack Morgan makes his appearence here, in a typical bad a** kind of a way.
But then,that's Jack Morgan. Ex Marine.
Page by gripping page, the the murders unfold and surprise ,surprise ...a bit of my class 9 history lesson.
References to The Criminal Tribes Act passed by the Britishers .
I am not supposed to kiss and tell,just review.( Kids at my school,google the summary of the books assigned for summer reading ,just so that they can get the 5 marks in their Assesments. I am not going to be privy to such a barbaric act! Kudos to James Patterson's initiative www.readkiddoread.com)
Thugee and hints of a secret ritualistic cult.
Serial Killers in our very own Mumbai, where random things happen to random people.
However, this is not a random act.
A planned act of a ritual cleansing by a man who has been wronged.(Every Criminal has that as his alibi)
A fast paced thriller with dead bodies popping in regularly,the authors have inter spaced the story with references to Indian Mythology and the secret ,mysterious Cult of Thugee and the Parsi Tower of Silence.
Strange objects ,like a viking helmet and eggs(of all the things) are found at the murder scenes and the Johnny Walker induced fuzziness does nothing to help the situation.
Men.
Typical!
Ever heard of a female detective?
Ever heard of a female detective trying to solve a crime under the haze of single malt whiskey???
That's chauvinism for you.
Anyway,the book is not easy to let go of.
Had I not been driving to work, I would have read Private India enroute too.
The style is fluid, fast paced and keeps glued and turning the pages of the book. The assistant Nisha Gandhe is a very suave ,very international , very hip and with it detective. And she has quick reflexes and a sharper mind. An ex-cop, she defies stereotypes.
And the fact that the bureau of Private India has access to the best equipment and the best technology, is super impressive.
I loved the way the story turned out, with the familiar Indian roads and the taxi wallahs and the now so familiar corrupt officials in the government. What rankled was the unexplained suicide of Hari Padhi and his quick murder of a key protagonist...
Reasons would have really added depth to the story.
Just like James Pattersons other books, this book has the potential to be made into a good, dark crime thriller- Bollywood style .
I am tempted to pick up Ashwin Sanghi's best sellers and read those too.
This is a book I would certainly reread, maybe I misssed a few nuances in my first time. The second time, as always ,promises to be better and link to a few more insights to the story.
Overall, I'd give PRIVATE INDIA 3.5 stars out of 5.
Definitely worth the wait and the time spent on the book.
Thumbs up to PRIVATE INDIA.
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