6 reviews for Patang
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Patang
by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay
Description:
I hate the rain I hate it, hate it, hate it. But the rain can’t stop me. No one can I’ll go out and play tonight. I will kill only four. No more, no less. Just four.’ In the midst of one of the worst monsoons in Mumbai, a man is found brutally murdered, his body posed like a kite on the tallest cell tower in the city. As one corpse after another turns up in the unlikeliest of places, each gruesomely killed and carefully arranged in a grotesque manner, the Mumbai Police realize they have more on their hands than they can deal with. Enter Chandrakant Rathod, a maverick investigator the police turn to in times of need, who plays by his own rules and lives for the thrill of the chase. Pitting his sharp instincts against the machinations of the sadistic, ruthless killer, the detective succeeds in nabbing the psychopath and putting him behind bars. Then, three months later, the killings begin again. A deadly game is afoot a game that will challenge Rathod to the utmost, for it is a game that he cannot hope to win…
About The Author
Bhaskar Chattopadhyay is a writer and translator. Bhaskar’s novels include ‘Penumbra’ (Fingerprint 2016) and ‘Patang’ (Hachette 2016). His translations include ’14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray’ (Harper 2014), ‘Shiva’ (Penguin 2016), ‘The House By The Lake’ (Scholastic 2014), ’12 Stories by Hasan Azizul Huq’ (Bengal Light Books 2015) and ‘No Child’s Play’ (Harper 2013). Bhaskar lives and works in Bangalore, India.
Skryf Review
“Good Reading”
Pooja
Patang soars from the word go. A killing spree that starts before the first chapter and does not end until the final chapter keeps the reader on edge. The last one is designed to make the reader scream – No!!! Don’t!!! The trail of crumbs that the author so cleverly scatters across the narrative sends both protagonist and the reader on the wildest goose chase of all. Each murder has been ingeniously devised and the climax can only be described as the manic outcome of a fiendish imagination. This dark thriller will leave you holding on to it long after you finish reading. You just can’t let go.
Havisha
Indian crime fiction scene is a mess littered with works, which at their best can be generic and predictable and at worst lazily written and poorly edited “thrillers”, written with the broadest of the strokes. I don’t think I ever read an ingenious crime fiction written by an Indian set in our milieu, our best crime stories come from Bollywood, or the news channels. Bhaskar Chattopadhyay’s Patang has a glowing review from Sriram Raghavan, the best genre filmmaker we have, and it is definitely a cut above the rest, Silence of the Lambs meets Shutter Island if you will, but ironically suffers both from predictability and improbability.
pankti
A deranged serial killer, a cop with an impeccable record and media frenzy to make the case more complicated. Patang by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay has every ingredient right for the perfect crime fiction concoction. And then, there is something extra as well. And that extra, the climax is something that makes you go “Mind Blowing”!! As his debut novel, Bhaskar has shown immense talent when it comes to captivating a reader’s mind and creatively making you fall in love with the muse of his book.Patang is a book that will keep you hooked since the very first page. There is hardly anything in this book that you won’t like. From the characters to the MO of the Patang Killer, everything is a creative genius. The ways in which murders are conducted is also something grotesque yet so beautiful if you think in context intelligence application. Chandrakant Rathod stands out as a cop. He doesn’t like media though he was once a reporter, he doesn’t think like cops and believes in quick and swift action. And he is sharp, his senses like a spider. He doesn’t believe in glamorisation of serial killers by the media. But then, I should congratulate the writer for creating such genius characters.And the climax, I mean when you will come to the climax, you will begin to think that yes, finally the Patang Killer is caught. And then, a bomb of reality is dropped on you which is like mind blowing! You will never the see the climax coming and that is something that has made this book so brilliant to read. Now, another thing that I would like to share that if you compare this book with other international crime fiction writers, you won’t enjoy it as much. Bhaskar has ensured that the essence and reality of Mumbai reflect in the story. And the reader should not have preset expectations from the story. Just open the first page and keep going, you will be amazed.All in all, Patang is a book that is like “The Indian Crime Fiction” book that you simply cannot miss. For serious readers, for non-serious readers or for metro readers, it is a book that everyone can read and enjoy.
Angaan
Patang is a clever little mystery-thriller – and no, we’ll not discuss the little easter eggs of cleverness – but what hit me hardest about it was the visuality of Chattopadhyay’s writing. Each scene is staged beautifully, the writing full of little details but never weighed down by them. Crucial moments are arrestingly described, without once descending into melodrama. It’s a balance rarely seen Indian writing in English, particularly in genre fiction.Of course, because this is a fast-paced, multi-subplot noir, sometimes the threads stretch a bit thin for a nitpicky reader. For instance, one is hard-pressed to believe assistant librarianships can offer a decent living in Bombay, or that the city police would have an in-house Holmes. But then, without a slightly unbelievable hero, what is a mystery or a noir? To Chattopadhyay’s credit, all his other characters are eminently believable, and come rich with local flavour. All in all, an eminently enjoyable book to begin the summer with, and if it ever gets picked up for the silver screen (and it should!), I shall certainly be in queue to watch it.
Kaushal
You will not realize while reading this one that it comes from a new writer. The plot has been created with a lot of thought and writing style is simple. Characters are also detailed very nicely in such a way that you start putting yourself in their shoes when reading the book.A simple everyday activity of a kid is taken and created into a murder mystery. I am surely going to think of a murder when I see a kite hanging around somewhere for the foreseeable future.