Skip to main content

Private India - Ashwin Sanghi & James Patterson

Ashwin Sanghi and James Patterson team up for the first time to create 447 pages of awesome thriller novel, Private India. The book is yet another installment from the best selling Private series by James Patterson. This time around, the destination as the title suggests Private , the World’s largest investigative organization comes to India.

Jack Morgan has hired Santosh Wagh as the head of Private India, who is a former RAW Agent. Santosh is assisted here by former CIA officer Nisha Gandhe, Dr. Mubeen a forensic expert and Hari the technology geek.

The challenge before the team is a serial killer in Mumbai who is on a killing spree, using a yellow scarf as his special weapon. Who is this person? Why does he specially target women? What's the meaning of all the props he painstakingly displays around his victims? Above all, how are all the murders connected to each other?

Most of all the challenges come from within; all team members are battling the war within, with their past and the present. So much so that running away from the past Santosh has taken up heavy drinking. But it is still of little help as the nightmares return, night after night. The past also haunts Mubeen who terribly misses his child and wife, killed by the neo Nazis in America. It is like the pain of the past is a bond that ties the whole team strongly.

The questions are abound but as bodies keep piling up, Santosh and his team are racing against time. The media has picked up on the scent as all dead are seemingly known personalities, a doctor, a media personality being among dead. With seemingly involvement of religious God man, Mumbai underworld Don, and a top lawyer the story has its twists and turns. Adding to the drama is the terrorist organization Indian Mujahideen who is planning a terrorist attack in Mumbai. But how is a serial murder case connected with a terrorist attack? Who is the intended target? Santosh and the team have to fit out the puzzle with the police reluctantly helping them out, seemingly with their own different agendas in mind. Rupesh, the police guy was once the best friend of Santosh, but with time the gap between them has widened. Now they have to bridge this gap to solve the case.

The collaboration in this book seems quite ideal; Ashwin brings in his usual excellence in religious angle thrillers. On the other hand, James brings in his expertise with thrillers and the Private series.
 Combined together, we have a potent combination and a marvelous thriller.
But the book does get predictable in a while. Halfway through the book, I knew who the killer would be and what the climax could be like. Still the pacy narrative and the writing itself keep you hooked up till the end. The ideas are not exactly new but still presented in a unique way.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at http://www.blogadda.com. Participate now to get free books!


Comments

Also read

Why do we crave bookshops when life falls apart? A deep reading of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop

This article reflects on Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum, a gentle novel about burnout, healing, and second chances. Through Yeong-ju and her quiet community, the book reminds you that meaning often returns slowly, through books, people, and ordinary days that begin to feel like home again. Why do so many of us secretly dream of walking away from everything? At some point, usually on a crowded weekday morning or during yet another meeting that could have been an email, you wonder if this is all there is. You did what you were told. You studied, worked hard, built a career, stayed responsible. And yet, instead of contentment, there is exhaustion. Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop begins exactly at this uncomfortable truth. Hwang Bo-reum’s novel does not shout its intentions. It does not promise transformation through grand revelations. Instead, it sits beside you quietly and asks a gentler question. What if the problem is not that you failed, but that you nev...

What if You Could undo every regret? An uncomfortable conversation with The Midnight Library

Have you ever replayed your life at night, wondering how things might have turned out differently? The Midnight Library by Matt Haig asks you to sit with that question. Through Nora Seed’s quiet despair and imagined alternatives, the novel explores regret, possibility, depression, and the fragile hope that living at all might be enough. Have you ever wondered if one different choice could have changed everything? You probably have. Most people do. Usually at night. Usually when the world goes quiet and your mind decides to reopen old files you never asked it to keep. The job you did not take. The person you loved too late or too briefly. The version of yourself that felt possible once. You tell yourself that if you had chosen differently, life would feel fuller, cleaner, less heavy. The Midnight Library begins exactly there, in that familiar ache. Not with drama, but with exhaustion. Not with chaos, but with a woman who feels she has quietly failed at everything that mattered. Mat...

Debate : Do the ends justify the means...

Note : Give it all a fair thought before you jot down... Flaming and religion-bashing will not be tolerated. Your participation is gladly appreciated. I dunno if you folks remember this incident; a couple of yrs back, the UPSC exam had a question where the emainee had to assert his views on *revolutionary terrorism* initiated by Bhagat Singh. As is typical of the government, hue and cry was not far behind... Anyway, let us look at some facts -   Bhagat Singh was an atheist, considered to be one of the earliest Marxist in India and in line with hi thinking, he renamed the Hindustan Republican Party and called it the Hindustan Socialist Revolutionary Party. Bhagat Finally, awaiting his own execution for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh at the young age of 24 studied Marxism thoroughly and wrote a profound pamphlet “Why I am an Atheist.” which is an ideological statement in itself. The circumstances of his death and execution are worth recounting. Although, Bhagat Singh had a...