Sacred Games

What Sacred Games is about

Sacred Games is a sprawling crime novel set in Mumbai, written by Vikram Chandra and published in 2006. It runs on two tracks. One moves through the city's criminal underworld in the 1980s and 1990s. The other is set in the present, where Inspector Sartaj Singh, one of very few Sikhs on the Mumbai police force, is trying to make sense of the strange last words of Ganesh Gaitonde, a legendary crime boss and one of India's most wanted men. Sartaj is past forty, his marriage is over and his career is slipping, so when an anonymous tip arrives about a hide-out, he has a lot riding on it. The novel was seven years in the making, and draws inspiration from the classics of nineteenth-century fiction, mystery novels, Bollywood movies and Chandra's own life and research on the streets of Mumbai. It won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award.

Questions about Sacred Games

When was Sacred Games published?

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra was first published in 2006.

Was Sacred Games one of the best books of 2006?

Sacred Games ranked #23 on BookWard's Best Books of 2006 when we last measured it, in October 2026. 257 readers have shelved it on Open Library.

Why is Sacred Games on the Best Books of 2006 list?

257 readers have shelved it on Open Library.

More of the best books of 2006

• The Sea of Monsters Rick Riordan, #1
• The Book Thief Markus Zusak, #2
• Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #3
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne, #4
• The Secret Rhonda Byrne, #5
• Mindset Carol S. Dweck, #6

See the full Best Books of 2006, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.