A friend introduced me to this mystery series set in 1920s Bombay. It features Perveen Mistry, Oxford educated daughter of a prominent Parsi family, and currently the only practicing female solicitor in Bombay in her family's law firm.
In her latest entry, The Widows of Malabar Hill (#1,236), Sujata Massey juxtaposes some of Perveen's unhappy personal history with a case involving three widows of a Muslim businessman. While reviewing some of the routine paperwork connected with the case, Perveen comes across some questionable documents signed by the widows. Not only their own incomes, but those of their children will be greatly affected by these papers, and not for the better. Perveen seeks an opinion from her father, but since the ladies live in purdah, behind screens, he cannot answer her questions as he dealt only Mr. Farid himself. Perveen sees the perfect opportunity to make herself useful in this situation - she, as a woman, can enter the women's quarter of the house and speak to the widows directly. It sounds like a great idea until her questions lead to murder and kidnappings...
It's not just the mysteries themselves which make this series so intriguing. It's the interplay of characters between British and Indian, Muslim, Hindu and Parsi, the haves and have-nots that make the books so rich in atmosphere. Perveen herself has a foot in both worlds in many cases. She's still not sure exactly where she fits into things, but she does know that she wants to be admitted to the Bar in India.
You could read The Widows of Malabar Hill as a stand-alone book, but I think it's best read in its proper place in the series. You can easily find that on Fantastic Fiction. Highly recommended!
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