1:48pm Monday 14th August 2006
By Steve Teale
SACRED GAMES. Publisher: Penguin Books India; Author: Vikram Chandra.
Sacred Games is an epic. Vikram Chandra's novel draws the reader into the life of detective Sartaj Singh, and into the criminal underworld of Ganesh Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India.
Sartaj, one of the very few Sikhs in the Mumbai police force, is used to being identified by his turban, beard and the sharp cut of his trousers. But the silky Sikh' is now past forty, his marriage is over, and his career prospects are on the slide. When Sartaj gets an anonymous tip-off as to the secret hideout of the legendary boss of G-company, he's determined that he'll be the one to collect the prize.
Vikram Chandra's keenly anticipated new novel is a sprawling, magnificent story of friendship and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its dark side. It draws on the best of Victorian fiction and mystery novels.
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