Sadly, Freny is discovered shortly after the parade dead from a fall from an upper floor in one of the college buildings- an apparent suicide. Perveen is with her friend Alice Hodgson-Jones in the viewing stands, looking out for Freny and wondering if she’s been bold enough to skip the parade. The tragedy of this novel occurs as the Prince of Wales passes by the college. But Freny, a devout Parsi, refuses to tell a falsehood of any kind. Freny is secretly part of a group advocating for Indian independence and Perveen ultimately advises her to feign illness and stay home. In the first book, The Widows of Malabar Hill (2018), Massey creates Perveen’s origin story in the second, The Satapur Moonstone (2020), she sends Perveen on an adventure in the jungle and in this one, the most traditional of the three, Perveen ends up solving a crime a bit closer to home.Īs the book opens, Perveen is visited by a young woman, Freny Cuttingmaster, who asks Perveen if her college can expel her for not attending the parade for the Prince of Wales, who is coming for a visit. Working in her father’s law office, Perveen settles contracts and wills, but is not allowed to argue in court. Set in 1920s India, her series features Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female lawyer. I love seeing a writer like Sujata Massey, who wrote a lengthy series set in Japan, break out with another that is obviously a passion for her.
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