Book Review: Private India

Private India is a mythological murder mystery co-written by James Patterson (an acclaimed author specializing in investigation based novels) and Ashwin Sanghi (who’s currently the best mythological thriller writer in India). This book is the 8th part of the “Private” series written by James Patterson. All his novels are location specific. James Patterson’s location based entry strategy is to co-write a book with a top author of the respective country. This way, he adds his fast paced novel writing with the localized flavor of the country introduced by his co-author. And this book is no different in that context.

Judging a book by its cover – 

Who should read this book – 

1. Thriller Addicts
2. Readers who love the Murder centered "Whodunit plots”
3. Have a thing or two for mythological novels? This is for you!

What's the story like – A murder happened in the hustle bustle city of Mumbai. An Indian entity of the world renowned investigation agency, by the name “Private India”, had been entrusted with the task. Another murder happened within hours and interesting props were kept at the murder site. Before Santosh Wagh, head of Private India, gets to terms with the 2nd occurrence, a 3rd incident happens within a day’s time. The connecting link between the murders – all are women strangulated with a yellow scarf and a seemingly unconnected props are left behind. Once the whodunit chase begins, we are introduced to a don and a Godman and the story gets murkier. There’s a bigger motive at stake and Santosh Wagh has to put up a fight to protect what’s left of his own. The end is predictable given the way the reader is led to the climax.

How's the writing – Clean and simple. This book is a definite page turner for two reasons – one, story is gripping and two, the font is bigger (Oops!). In all seriousness, I felt the plot and various other sub-plots were worth the read. The characters are well defined and have justifiable reasons behind the decisions / actions. Grammatically there are errors which you don’t expect from a great writer like Ashwin Sanghi. Or were those a touch of creative innovation, am not sure. Even if it were, it didn’t feel like one. The book also changes from a 3rd person narrative to a 1st person narrative of the murderer which makes the reading experience a little bit more interesting and gives a glimpse of what the murderer is thinking / doing at that point in time.

So, what do I think – A seemingly unconnected string of murders happening with no apparent motive of stealing or revenge and a world famous investigation agency trying to make sense of it and to connect the dots between the murders – who wouldn’t want to turn the pages? This book ensures you are reading this right to the end without a break! If at all anything, there are two negatives – random grammatical errors and a rather expected climax with some dots unconnected in the end. 

Ashwin Sanghi has proved yet again that he is the best at Mythological thrillers in India. The expectation has only risen. I haven’t read any of James Patterson’s novels but I think that needs to change.

My Rating: 3.5 / 5

PS: This review is part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda. A special thanks to the BlogAdda team for selecting me for the review process.