Age of Vice, set in India, is a compelling crime thriller mixed with a family saga.

It begins with the police finding a young man named Ajay inebriated in a flashy Mercedes surrounded by a group of dead bodies. The police suspect he just rammed through the crowd sleeping on the pavement. At first glance, the police see Ajay as a man vested in wealth, but upon closer inspection, they realize he is a servant. When the police ask him what happened to cause him to crash his employer’s car, he remains silent.

The story unfolds from here, starting with Ajay’s impoverished youth to how he eventually came to work for one of India’s most wealthy and powerful families; and how he wound up in that vehicle. It is a story of violence, crime, and extravagance juxtaposed with extreme poverty.

It has three main POVs and a few extra thrown in for good measure.

It is an epic book, clocking in at over 500 pages, but it did not feel excessively long. Sometimes there would be pages of dialogue, but then it would be followed by a single paragraph taking up the whole page, so it felt balanced.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ajay’s sections. I would have been happy reading a whole book from just his pov.

I’m not super into reading about bad people doing bad things, aka crime novels, but Neda and Ajay were enough to keep my interest going. Although, the other characters brought more clarity into what was going on in this climate.

I believe Age of Vice is the first book in a trilogy, so the cliffhanger ending makes a lot more sense. My one qualm would be that there was loads of build up, but towards the end, it felt slightly rushed and chaotic. However, it did have a cinematic feel to it. Hopefully, the next book will clear everything up.

I highly recommend trying this if you enjoy thrillers and crime novels.

Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

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Very enjoyable read. I love a well done BIG book and this did not disappoint. I read the other reviews and a number of readers DNF - I think they would have been rewarded if they had stayed the course. The multiple character story lines converge and wrap up well. I do agree that Ajay was the most sympathetic of the characters but the development of Sunny and Neda was so well written that I enjoyed their stories as well.

Took me a few days to read the first 50% and then a couple of hours to read the remainder!

File this under the category epic crime fiction, Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor spans from the early 90s to 2008. We begin by following the journey of a young boy, Ajay, in a poor village who forgets to tie up the family goat. The goat escapes into a neighbour’s yard and gets into their vegetables. From here, we are off to the races when someone must atone for the goat’s behaviour.

Years later and Ajay has just been released of his duties from a house in the mountains where he worked as a servant. He meets a man named Sunny Wadia at a local cafe. Sunny is flaunting his money and Ajay makes it his business to serve every need of Sunny’s. It isn’t long before Sunny tells him that he could use a person like him on his team and hands him a business card telling him to make contact if he comes to Delhi.

The story changes focus from Ajay to Sunny and back again and then a female journalist named Neda also enters the picture. We learn of the background of the Wadia family and its connections to almost every form of business in the area. This is a family of gangsters.

The opening scene of the book takes place in the later stages of the story and involves Ajay being found in a Mercedes, drunk on whisky, after having plowed through 5 people sleeping on a sidewalk.

The connections formed throughout the story were very clever and I was keenly interested in where it would all go. The story is very gritty and violent. Age of Vice is both character and plot driven and has a bit of a cliffhanger but one with a satisfactory ending. I am just left wanting to know more about what happens to the characters in the future.

The settings of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in particular were coarse and descriptive and I could imagine the scenery. Corruption, greed, family, obligation, romance, revenge, Age of Vice had it all.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollinsca for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions. Age of Vice publishes January 3, 2023. It would be a great one to begin the year with and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is picked up by some book clubs.

Well this was certainly a unique read and very different from anything I’ve read before and I mean that in a good way. I’m not eloquent enough to describe the premise as there is a lot of storylines and themes in this book.

I think the book starts off in such a strong way that you are immediately hooked in. It might be the best start to a book I’ve read.

I can’t say I absolutely loved the ending but overall I throughly enjoyed the book and would highly recommend this to everyone. All the characters are really great but I especially had a soft spot for Ajay and loved his character. I could see a sequel to this book in the future and can’t wait to read it.

Although admittedly at times I did find the story harder to follow, particularly when the author jumps between characters to retell parts of the story from their perspectives. That said, I did I really enjoy the story and the cliffhanger ending left me wondering what would be next…When I first started reading I was unsure where the story was going but I found myself intrigued from the beginning. This story is much different than my usual read but a refreshing change of pace. I appreciated the character building but probably could have done with out some of the details. All in all a great start to a bigger story that I am sure will be worth the read, I will be watching for future books!

This book reminds me of gangster movie. Conspiracy theories, hidden identities, corruption and ruthlessness. Not quite my regular genre, but good none thd less. 3.25 out of 5 ⭐️