Age of Vice: A Novel (Large Print / Paperback)
January 2023 Indie Next List
“A potent and moving crime drama set in India, Age of Vice takes a magnifying glass to the corruption and violence caused by wealth. Sweeping in scope yet attuned to the minute details of everyday life, this is a novel that’s not to be missed.”
— Bennard Fajardo, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
Staff Reviews
This book is so much more than just a mystery story wrapped in a fiction book. It's a book about monsters, and men, and humanity. About wealth disparity, and classes, and privileges you don't know you have. It's about four characters whose lives have folded and unfolded into each other-- and continue that trend right up until the end.
This was a fantastic read, and I'm stunned I hadn't read it sooner. Deepti Kapoor's storytelling has a unique tone to it, one that will stretch moments of these characters lives or give you absolutely no time to process what happened.
This is a book I'd recommend to anyone who wants t0 read a thrilling novel that will keep your heart racing, your mind working, and the pages turning right up until the end. The suspense starts from page one, and with every pov we go through more and more light is shed on the situation each of these lives have found themselves in. You'll love to hate the characters and hate to love them at the same time; every flaw is highlighted.
— -- Makayla R., Best Cellars Colfax ManagerA GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
“Dazzling...Finally free from the book’s grip, now all I want to do is get others hooked.”— The Washington Post
“Cinematic…A luxe thriller…As a storyteller, Kapoor is a natural.”-- The New York Times
"Sensationally good — huge, epic, immersive and absorbing ... certain to be a book of the year." —Lee Child
This is the age of vice, where money, pleasure, and power are everything,
and the family ties that bind can also kill.
New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family -- loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence and revenge, will these characters’ connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction?
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption. It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best.