Private India: City on Fire

After krishna key, ashwin Shanghai has come up with a far more gripping plot in collaboration with James Patterson. I just couldn't keep the book down. It was mind boggling and certainly splendid. Amazing read. I've asked my mom to read it. It will surely be a wonderful experience for anybody who reads it. The clarity in thought and consistency in plot, narrating style, sequence of events and correlation between the characters- every thing is just perfect.

The beginning was very slow. I think the character development dragged on too long. However the storyline was interesting and exciting. Again, I think that the ending left you hanging. The endings of the last few books gave been under developed. I expect the ending to make you want more. These endings just make you feel like you read the book for nothing. Very good book though.

I have read some of the reviews and find it interesting that so many reviewers were so upset and had trouble reading the book because it had some strange names. The title says India. Do you expect names to be Jane, Tom, Rex, Harry, John, Jack, etc.?There are TV shows where the stories are true, but with the names changed to protect the innocent. This book is similar in that the names have changed, but the template for this book is the same as earlier Private books. Change the names to those I listed above and the rest of the book would be indistinguishable from any other Private book location. Reading the book gave me very little sense of India or Mumbai. Yes, there were a few things "Indian," but not enough for any sense of place.The story was dull, bounced around too much, had uninteresting characters, tried to add a little suspense, tried to foster a bit of terrorism and touch on issues with Pakistan. A next to useless description of Thugs and how they fit into the culture didn't make any difference. The best "scene" was the Rupesh/Santosh/vultures story and even that was boring. I didn't care that Hari killed himself nor did I care for any of the characters. They were stock characters and of a stock that is old and dull.The previous Private books were a bit better than this one. Hopefully the next is better, but ... Las Vegas?

Bollywood (India's Hindi movie industry based out of Mumbai formerly Bombay) is not known for action-thrillers though it does make a lot of thrillers with murder-suspense, terrorism, and mostly gangster themes and it would do well to read this book and consider a movie adaptation of the same! The joint duo of American, James Patterson (Alex Cross novels) and Indian, Ashwin Sanghi (apparently India's "Lord of The Rings" meets "Da Vinci Code" thriller writer who has so far written three novels that I have not read) do such a superb Indo-American co-authoring of a pulse-pounding, page-turning, and edge-of-the-seat body-pileup thriller filled with myriad colorful Indian characters based in India's NYC-meets-LA city of Mumbai, that it makes you wonder: is this book a mish-mash of Bollywood thrillers or is it custom-written to be adapted into a Bollywood movie? The book moves at such a lightning pace that I finished it over a weekend (my fastest read ever)! The only element missing in this novel, are the songs-and-dances!! However, to be fair, the motive (trying not to give any spoilers) behind the serial-killings was a little unconvincing and the climax, a bit of a let-down but it would make sense to Indians and those who are aware (SPOILER ALERT!!) that there were indeed a string of murders committed by an unknown and un-apprehended killer (or killers?) who stalked the streets of Mumbai and Kolkatta back in '85-'90 and who murdered about 26 homeless people in both cities put together, by smashing their heads with a stone (earning the name "the stoneman" or "pathar-maar" in Hindi). Rumor has it, the killer(or killers?) had a religious/superstitious belief that pleasing a goddess with a certain number of human sacrifices would rid themselves of their impotence. Another historical accuracy and factual reference of this novel is the that of India's "Thugee" cult of murderers who used to kill and rob hordes of travelers by either first hoodwinking them to gain their trust and strangling them with a handkerchief ("rumaal" in Hindi) in their sleep or just ambushing and strangling them. The British did eliminate this cult in pre-independence India (refer to Pierce Brosnan starrer "The Deceivers"). The Hindi word for cheat is "thug" which was anglicized to become the current English word "thug", which means hood. Apart from that, the city of Mumbai and India in general being a frequent target of terrorists sponsored by her neighbor to the west, was dead-on. I enjoyed reading all of this material and was beaming in approval at the accuracy of this novel in blending history and fact with fiction.

I don't do reviews but I read them. In this case I'm writing one to let you know the book is really good. Not great, but good. The names and places are hard to get around, but after a while you get used to them. The story line was interesting and I enjoyed learning some of India's history. I read the book in one afternoon so it's fast paced and it was hard for me to put down. I hope you will give it a try!

The Indian culture, words be named are too abstract in a fiction book to make any sense. The dread of having to complete this was not fun for this American .

I love James Patterson's books and have read many of them. This book did not disappoint me. I read it in 2 days. The chapters flow into the next chapter and it's hard to put down. You just keep reading until you're done. I love a good mystery and this book is good. Couldn't wait to read the next Private book. Recommend this book to anyone who love mysteries.

Das Buch war so verzettelt. Es hat mir nicht gefallen.

good book

First Observation: This book COULDN'T have been written by Ashwin Sanghi. Had he written it, I'm sure that it would have been an unreadable infodump with laughable characters and atrocious language. It is NOT. QED, it only bears the name of Sanghi. But whosoever might be the actual writer entrusted with the onerous task of taking James Patterson's 'Private' franchise alive and kicking in India, has done a fantastic job.Second Observation: The book is a brilliant thriller. The pages literally seem to fly. Crisp and compact sentences plunged into the reader's mind like a sniper's bullet or a killer's knife. Characters jumped out of Page 3, in a suitably sordid tale of sex, violence, abuse, revenge, and powerplay. In short, it was just the thing a doctor would prescribe for a thriller-lover bruised by yawn inducing overhyped mysteries being peddled across the sites.Highly Recommended. Just don't take it too seriously, OK?

The first 2 or 3 in the series were definately the best. I've read them all to datebut not sure I will bother if others come out.

great series,cannot wait for the next one