this was a great start to a series, I really enjoyed getting to know the world and the characters in it.

I knew The Brotherhood has received a lot of buzz when I selected it to read. Unfortunately, I don't share others' enthusiasm. The insurmountable problem for me is that I don't like any of the characters. I'm fine with flawed characters, but you have to like them despite their flaws. Unfortunately, if you don't like the people you're reading about it's hard to care what happens to them.

I really wanted to like this book. Advertised as an action packed pulpy modern noir from an Indian American author it sounded like a lot of fun. Sadly I gave up reading it at about the 10% mark. I just couldn’t get on with the writing at all. The sentences all felt much too long (certainly not like the punchy prose of noir) and there was far too much exposition.

The best way to describe Brotherhood is simply this: a Mickey Spillane novel with a Bombay (or is it Mumbai … bloody hell) flavour … set in New York City. Betrayal, religious hypocrisy, greed, and sexual nastiness … it is nice warm cuddly pulp fiction with a nice global marinade.

I chose this book because I've never read crime fiction written by Indian writers. I wanted to get a taste of different plots, characters, language, voice, settings...
I have to give the book its dues. I got the taste. This book was very different to very many crime novels I've read so far. Initially, I found it very busy, too names-dense and too cartoony. But then I remembered all the Bollywood movies my stepdad and his daughter loved to watch and realised that this is just right. This is what I should have been expecting.
The plot of this book was interesting. It hooked... but only to fall to pieces mid-way through the book. Who is who in the Brotherhood and who is who in this novel and where it all leads to... Who knows.
There is no clear division on right and wrong, good an bad. Characters have likeable traits but sometimes you just want to shoot them.
I finished this book quite quickly.
Also, I found preface, dedication and list of characters too overwhelming and unnecessary.

Definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea. I took a very long time to get through it even though it wasn't a long book. The writing is good and the murder mystery is entertaining but there were too many other little things going on and too many themes that it got confusing to follow.
It's different because it's cultural but that's not this book's downfall. Maybe footnotes would have worked better to adjust to the terminology. Morality in an economic recession where people are desperate for money, at a time where the lifestyle of people was different and to include religious fanaticism in it too is a tricky combination which doesn't appeal to people who have close to nothing in common with age/heritage/religion/knowledge that the characters have.

It's a personal preference thing. Each person really has to decide for themselves if this book is suitable to their tastes.

I don't mind reading about sex, as it's an important and natural part of our lives, but this book seems to be so focused on sex it gets ridiculous. The plot seems messy, but is actually OK, and there are lots of characters to keep track of.
Readable, but could have been tidier.