Title : Private India
Author: Ashwin Sanghi & James Patterson
Publisher: Arrow Books
Pages : 470
Genre: Thriller
Release date: 2014
Review for : BlogAdda.com
About the Authors:
Ashwin Sanghi is a popular Indian fiction writer with 3 previous bestsellers – The Rozabal Line, Chanakya’s Chant & The Krishna Key.
James Patterson has written some of the popular series like The Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club & Detective Michael Bennett novels.
This novel is infact a part of his PRIVATE series where he collaborates with different writers from different countries
What is the story about?
The first impression that you get on reading the title PRIVATE INDIA is that its probably a story about the stock & bulls & bears but it actually is about PRIVATE INDIA, the Mumbai branch of the world famous International Investigation agency headed by Jack Morgan. The story is about how Private India is involved in solving a series of murders happening all over Mumbai & ending up getting more than what they bargained for.
The thrills & spills…..
So Private India as mentioned above is a an investigation agency based in Mumbai, which is an International brand headed by Jack Morgan. The Mumbai branch of the agency is headed by Santosh Wagh & his team of Nisha, Mubeen & Hari.
The story begins in the backdrop of the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993(Which I felt was brought into the story for no apparent reason) where a serial killer is on the prowl & is targeting seemingly unsuspecting & unconnected individuals. The murders themselves aren’t straight forward with every murder being a part of a larger puzzle being planned by the devious mind of the killer. With each murder the killer leaves a fresh set of clues for PRIVATE INDIA to find & that’s how the story unfolds with each clue pointing fingers at different suspect at different times.
For some reason the character of Santosh Wagh reminded me of Dr Gregory House from House MD. He is a grumpy aging ex military guy who wields a walking stick but seems to be extremely good at what he does. His team of Nisha Gandhe, Mubeen Yusuf & Hari Padhi are all experts in their respective fields.The story has everything. In fact it has so many components included that you can probably write 2 or 3 stories based on each of them! If one chapter is entirely dedicated to a steamy sex session between two of the major characters, the other one is based on NIMBOO BABA, who reminds you of the notorious baba in Singham! The story keeps shifting from a local gunda to cricket spot fixing (A little far fetched) to filmfare awards to a cult (which seems to be a standard for most Indian fiction thriller writers these days.
The story moves at a fast pace with short & crisp chapters which sometimes are so short that its tough to keep up with the timeline of the story.The description of the location of the office of PRIVATE INDIA was hilarious! I felt that there were too many elements included almost to please the readers with different interests. Also the emotions of the main characters was a big BIG let down. You hardly get to know them & at the end of the story you’ll probably never remember a Santosh Wagh or Nisha or for that matter ANYBODY in the story! The climax was intriguing especially to know who the killer was & the way the murders were connected & the reasoning behind the murders & the choice of victims was quite good.
All in all PRIVATE INDIA is an “ok” read. You can probably add it to your wish list & read it when you are waiting for something better to come out.
Score- 5.5/10
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