Private India by Ashwin Sanghi and James Patterson has unique features of two well known writers of the world. The plot has exhaustive research which is the specialty of Ashwin Sanghi’s writing and also gripping suspense till the end which is the trademark of James Patterson. Together they had produced a solid plot with many twist and turns which kept me occupied guessing who is the real culprit.
As it was suggested earlier Private India series is especially for the Indian reader set in Indian environment. It has Mumbai as backdrop and authors has included many facets of Mumbai like local trains, chawpati, beach, series train blast in 2006 etc which puts the readers at ease due to the familiarity.
“Private India” is possibly the first book in the Private India series (the Indian branch of Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe run by former CIA agent Jack Morgan) with Santosh Wagh in charge with his team consists of his assistant Nisha Gandhe, technology geek Hari and Mubeen, the forensics expert.
Together they search for a serial women killer. The authors has managed to point the needle of suspicion from one character to another skillfully. Sometimes towards the team of Santosh, at one point even Jack Morgan, and some other characters. Alas, the least expected was the killer. Something happens in most of the thriller book and movies. The culprit is always least highlighted.
The book has been written in very simple language. It was breeze to read. Very unlike the Ashwin Sanghi’s writing. He uses high voltage words in his books that many a time I have to take help of dictionary to understand the meaning of the words. The chapters were very small. Each event has one chapters. I really liked it. Small chapters and small paragraphs. Neat and clean style of writing. But it always gave me a feeling of reading a thriller movie screenplay or watching CID on Sony channel.
Nevertheless, the plot was woven brilliantly. The whole logic behind the chain of the murders came out real well. At the end I was a bit confuse whether to hate the killer or sympathize. There is also a bomb story which was a sort of sub plot was a bit of distraction and at the end proved to be unnecessary. But then the authors might thought it to be necessary in order to build up suspense in the plot.
The novel is a page turner no doubt, with a decent pace and good solid plot will keep you glued to the book, but doesn’t give that adrenaline rush. That nail biting thrill is lacking may be due to sub plots which eases the tension and distracts the reader.
The Verdict:
The novel has the best of both the writers. It was a great read. Will be looking forward to read more books under the series.
