Sacred Games
Vikram Chandra 
Penguin
<p>Winner of the hutch crossword book award 2006 for best work in english fiction seven years in the making, sacred games is an epic of exceptional richness and power. Vikram chandra's novel draws the reader deep into the life of inspector sartaj singh, and into the criminal underworld of ganesh gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in india. This is a sprawling, magnificent story of friendship and betrayal, of terrible violence, of an astonishing modern city and its dark side. Drawing on the best of victorian fiction, mystery novels, bollywood movies and chandra's years of first-hand research on the streets of mumbai, sacred games reads like a pot boiling page-turner but resonates with the intelligence and emotional depth of the best of literature.</p>