The Mistress of Bhatia House
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4.4 • 53 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Bombay’s only female solicitor, Perveen Mistry, grapples with class divisions, sexism, and complex family dynamics as she seeks justice for a mistreated young woman in this thrilling fourth installment in Sujata Massey’s award-winning series.
India, 1922: Perveen Mistry is the only female lawyer in Bombay, a city where child mortality is high, birth control is unavailable and very few women have ever seen a doctor.
Perveen is attending a lavish fundraiser for a new women’s hospital specializing in maternal health issues when she witnesses an accident. The grandson of an influential Gujarati businessman catches fire—but a servant, his young ayah, Sunanda, rushes to save him, selflessly putting herself in harm’s way. Later, Perveen learns that Sunanda, who’s still ailing from her burns, has been arrested on trumped-up charges made by a man who doesn’t seem to exist.
Perveen cannot stand by while Sunanda languishes in jail with no hope of justice. She takes Sunanda as a client, even inviting her to live at the Mistry home in Bombay’s Dadar Parsi colony. But the joint family household is already full of tension. Perveen’s father worries about their law firm taking so much personal responsibility for a client, and her brother and sister-in-law are struggling to cope with their new baby. Perveen herself is going through personal turmoil as she navigates a taboo relationship with a handsome former civil service officer.
When the hospital’s chief donor dies suddenly, Miriam Penkar, a Jewish-Indian obstetrician, and Sunanda become suspects. Perveen’s original case spirals into a complex investigation taking her into the Gujarati strongholds of Kalbadevi and Ghatkopar, and up the coast to Juhu Beach, where a decadent nawab lives with his Australian trophy wife. Then a second fire erupts, and Perveen realizes how much is at stake. Has someone powerful framed Sunanda to cover up another crime? Will Perveen be able to prove Sunanda’s innocence without endangering her own family?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1922 India, Massey's provocative fourth entry in her Perveen Mistry series (following 2022's The Bombay Prince) finds Perveen, Bombay's only female solicitor, volunteering to defend a young ayah who has been arrested for inducing her own abortion. The woman denies she was ever pregnant, and as Perveen investigates, she slowly uncovers corruption, fraud, and possibly murder, all tied to the misappropriation of funds raised for a women's hospital. Things get more complicated when Perveen's sister-in-law, suffering from severe postpartum depression, leaves her newborn with Perveen's parents and goes home to her mother. The complex mystery sometimes takes a backseat to Massey's deep dive into social issues during the Raj, especially the lack of rights for women of all classes. Those matters are mostly well-handled, though—through Perveen, readers see an Oxford-educated lawyer from a privileged family plausibly contend with the sexism and racism of her time and place—and when Massey returns to the plot's core mystery, she manages some nifty suprises. This is a transporting mystery.
Customer Reviews
Engrossing historical crime novel
Love the characters and setting. This one was a bit overstuffed with red herrings, however; I prefer a more concise approach.
This series is amazing
Unfortunately those of us who study history in the USA rarely get exposed to Southeastern Asia history or culture. This well researched series with its fictional characters provides an interesting insight into a culture we should know about. Plus the story of the family is intriguing. Definitely worth reading.