The Widows of Malabar Hill (A Perveen Mistry Novel Book 1) Kindle Edition

It has received rave reviews from many guests on the "What Should I Read Next?" podcast and from the podcast host Ann Bogel.The setting in 1920s Bombay is rich and well-researched. The author consulted many experts to understand the culture, the daily lives, the customs, and even the foods of that time and place, so the reader has the past brought alive. She uses many terms and references from the era and includes an alphabetical glossary to aid the reader. This was helpful but not at all necessary to enjoy the book.The heroine, Perveen Mistry, is Bombay's first female lawyer, practicing with her father in the well-respected firm of Mistry Law, founded by her grandfather. Her character is based, in part, on a real woman who made history as India's first female attorney.Mistry Law must execute the will of a wealthy Muslim mill owner, Omar Farid. Perveen finds the paperwork suspicious: all three of Farid's wives have signed over their inheritance to a charity, but what would they live on? Do they understand what they're doing...or are they being coerced by an unscrupulous male guardian? The widows live in full purdah—strict seclusion—never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to men face-to-face.As Perveen gains access to the women, her suspicions are confirmed, but when tensions lead to a murder, she and her father find a baffling collection of clues that keep them from knowing whom to trust.Threaded throughout is Perveen's backstory of a disastrous marriage and her own commitment to making sure the widows are protected from antiquated inheritance laws.Excitement builds as some members of the Farid household disappear and Perveen herself becomes a target.This delicious who-done-it is set against the backdrop of the fascinating multicultural city of Bombay, where not only were there rigidly observed separations between British authorities and native Indians, but there were also huge cultural differences between Muslims, Hindus, and Zoroastrians. These all added color and interest to the story, and even though Perveen's family was progressive for the time, they too were shackled by cultural norms, standards, and expectation.This book would make a great movie, and I certainly hope we'll see more of this engaging and impetuous heroine.

Rating: 4.5 / 5THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL by Sujata Massey was my pick for the thriller or mystery prompt by a woman of color on the Reading Women Challenge. I meant to get to it in June, but just didn’t get to it, so it went right to my July TBR. I have heard Sujata Massey highly praised on the Reading Women and Book Riot podcasts, so I knew I needed to check it out.THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL is a mystery set in the early 1900s in India and it follows Perveen Mistry, the only female lawyer in Bombay. Perveen works for her father and her gender does limit her from performing all the functions of a lawyer, but also gives her some unique access. As a woman, Perveen has access to speak with the three widows of their deceased client even though they are in seclusion and may not be seen or touched by any man during their mourning period.Perveen suspects that the widows are being taken advantage of by the man who was brought in to oversee the house, the widows and their families in the absence of his late boss. As Perveen begins to investigate, things turn even more intense when she discovers a murder.I really loved Perveen as a character. As the narrative progresses, we get some chapters that flash back to her background and her struggles with her education and her relationships that have brought her to the present day. She is a very strong female protagonist at a time when that would have been a rarity. She shows intelligence and creativity to discover the truth and get herself out of the trouble she finds along the way.I haven’t done a lot of reading set in India, especially not in the 1920s when this book takes place. There is a lot of interesting discussion of women’s rights in regards to marriage, education and inheritance. In the case of the widows they are choosing to remain in seclusion which is in no way represented negatively, but in some cases women are forced into seclusion which certainly is.It initially took me a little while to fully engage with this story, but I really enjoyed it once I got into it. This is a mystery which largely depends on character development rather than solely the mystery at hand. This was very well written and I will definitely be looking forward to reading Sujata Massey’s latest release.

I've liked the Rei Shimura mysteries without loving them. But this one's a whole different kettle of fish -- I have adored reading it. There's a bit of Kipling's Kim to it -- it's fascinating how different religions and cultures lived side by side, each with its own set of strong cultural norms, language, and its own laws. Makes our "diversity" problems in the US seem like kindergarten -- and us like kindergarteners.The heroine is a joy. The story is told in constant flashbacks, interleaving a story from the present with a story from five years earlier. I found myself getting irritated with that mechanism until rather late in the book, when I understood why Massey had chosen to reveal the older tale gradually.Having a mystery set in an orthodox Muslim household where the women live in a zenana in purdah is thoroughly fascinating -- this book is a vivid exploration of the lives of women in the different cultures. Lot of darkness, as a result, but leavened by the unquenchable, level-headed heroine and her modern, loving parents into something fascinating but not overpowering. I can hardly wait for the sequels -- I hope they are numerous.