A city that never sleeps…
A wicked serial killer who hates women…
A corrupt system…
And
One guy who dares to stop him
This is a classic James Patterson plot.
And I like it as I have liked his other ventures.
With the help of fellow author Ashwin Sanghi, this book gave me as a Mumbaikar, an altogether different feeling.
The storyline being set in Mumbai gave me more benefits in terms of visual referencing as I could make out majority of the places mentioned in the book.
This couldn’t be done in his previous books. 😛
Also, the story is set during the Navratri season. Guess what? As I’m typing this, we are in the middle of the Navratri season. So the book reading experience goes up to an all together new level for me.
Anyways, the story is set up this time in Mumbai, as “Private” officers try to decode the prolific cases in the country, without the ordinary public knowing much about them.
This time, they handle a serial killer, whose specialty is only with killing females.
Also the perpetrator gives the murder an artistic look, with some random prop’s which won’t make sense to you and me unless we break our heads together and search for a pattern.
The killings seem to be on a random basis. Santosh Wagh, the head of “Private India” alongside his team are always 2 steps behind the killer.
It’s almost as if the only way they can track the next victim is post her death!!
Private Officers then try various angles, which also makes them enter the forbidden territory of the rich and influential people who have their derriere insured by the politicians.
Of course they get some clues but to link them become a problem. But to use them, means raising alarm bells which ain’t a good sign for them. With majority of police officers under the payroll of the politicians, it gets tough to cough up information and leads in order to solve the case.
Also, the killer seems to be in no mood to stop these murders.
In the later stage of the story, although through co incidence but Santosh cracks up a pattern courtesy of Goddess Durga.
The killer seems to be using the props which are seen in the 9 forms of Goddess Durga.
So this makes clear to the officers, that there would be 9 murders and all of women. The only negative aspect is that by the time this news is out many women had been killed.
Now, for the first time, the cops know something and can work on the lead. They keep up their work, connecting the dots to all the victims.
The climax shows Santosh Wagh and his team cracking the pattern alongside the relation between all the victims.
By that, they make out the name of the killer and the last target who happens to be Nisha, an officer from Private India.
Santosh and his team try their best till the very end derailing all problems right from politicians to corrupt cops who try to thwart their plans to catch the killer.
But “Private India” officers are no small time officers, and they prove this by beating all odds and saving their own Nisha from the grasp of the killer.
The ending shows a rather disturbed Santosh thinking of quitting “Private India”.
You will find it tough to connect the dots until the very last chapter.
But it will be fun when you rattle your mind to find the killer and the motive behind the killings.
Go ahead.
Knock yourself out.
Read it.
Well done Ashwin Sanghi & James Patterson!!
Buy via Filpkart – PRIVATE INDIA
Read Synopsis via GoodReads – PRIVATE INDIA
This post is also written for Day 1 of The Ultimate Blog Challenge
