Perveen Mistry Investigates (1920s Indian Mystery)

Posted On October 15, 2023

Hi Readers! I am currently reading the mystery book series written by Sujata Massey with Perveen Mistry at its center. There are four books published; The Widows of Malabar Hill (alt title: A Murder in Malabar Hill), The Satapur Moonstone, The Bombay Prince and The Mistress of Bhatia House. Of these, I have read the first two so far. The highlight of these books is that Perveen Mistry is the shown as the first woman lawyer in Bombay and all the stories have a significance with that aspect. I had high expectations, which were only partially met, but it’s definitely a series I would recommend you all to read.

~~THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL~~

Have you ever tried Honey Chili Fries? Despite having contrasting flavours of sweet and spicy, it just works. The Widows of Malabar Hills & its protagonist Perveen Mistry are like that. It’s a combination of sweet mystery and spicy history. But, if you are looking for hard-core mystery or researched history, then this one isn’t for you. Just like fries, it’s more of an appetizer kind of a book. It is to be enjoyed before you want to immerse yourself in a big intense traumatic book. And, if you are not the kind of reader who prefers intense books, then you can order triple fries because there’s more of Perveen Mistry with three more books!

The Widows of Malabar Hills is written in a dual story line, one which is entirely about Perveen’s life in 1916 and another where Perveen is involved in a legal capacity for the three widows of Mr. Omar Farid in 1921. Reading about Perveen in 1916 and 1921 is like reading about two different women, which truly goes to shows the ingenious writing style for this character arc. We see a naïve girl quitting college and following a boy evolve into a capable career-oriented lawyer. If that’s not the glow-up, then what is?

The 1916 storyline was a bit much for me. It was necessary to establish Perveen of the 1920s, but a more edited version of that storyline would have been ideal. As for the 1921 storyline, I wouldn’t call it a mystery, but it did have elements of murder, inheritance mystery, withholding of information and more. I think what made this book standout for me was learning about how Parsi women lived during that era. It isn’t something I have ever read about in books. And, showing us the extreme side of progression with the Mistry family as opposed to the extreme orthodox way of living with Sodawalla family really brought out the balance, in a way. In the next books, I am hoping to see Perveen in a more intelligent, vocal, proactive mode and eventually fighting cases in the Court in a masterful way. I have rated The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey at 4/5 stars!

~~THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE~~

The Satapur Moonstone is the second book in the Perveen Mistry book series by Sujata Massey. Sequels either make or break the series and in this case, it was the latter. Set on a hill station, Perveen is sent as a representation of the government to meet with the queens of the Satapur Palace. Perveen was tasked with deciding about the education of ten-year-old Maharaja Jiva Rao because his mother Choti-Rani Mirabai and grandmother Rajmata Putlabai had contrasting opinions. But naturally, Perveen finds herself in more danger around the palace that runs deeper than the education debate.

While I hadn’t loved the first book, I did like it a lot. So, compared to that, this one was weaker. It took the first 250 pages to build the premise. There’s is a lot that I didn’t enjoy in this book; too many characters, super slow burn, wooden dialogues with no flow, predictable enough ending. There was also only one story line in this book. If we had a past-present writing structure like the first book, it would have been better. I understand that the Cyrus storyline ended organically (glad it did), but I’d have loved reading about Perveen’s Oxford adventures with Alice. Maybe there would have been some queer exploration and representation along the way.

As for the atmosphere, I didn’t feel it. It was perhaps because living in a city has cushioned me to all luxuries that have translated into basic needs. But, going from A to B in a palanquin while it was raining outside made me feel uncomfortable instead of how it was intended. I also felt the red herrings in the form of superstitions were unnecessary. Neither did the story show any meaningful impact of a goddess, nor did it delve into superstitions in a village.

The major things I liked about the book were how there was a focus on education, modernization of transport in villages and the happy ending of women empowerment. I have rated The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey at 3/5 stars!

~~THE BOMBAY PRINCE~~

The Bombay Prince is a story where the Edward VIII, Prince of Wales arrives in Bombay. The city is divided with one group welcoming him while the other group rioting against him. At the center of it all is the Woodburn college where there is a suspicious death.

As usual, Perveen Mistry acts as a detective rather than a solicitor in yet another novel. The writing is similar as to the first two books, where there are a lot of robotic conversations with a disjointed continuation of the story. I wasn’t too fond of the characters either and was not able to connect with them. Even the ending was extremely mellow which did not directly connect to the Prince. Aside from the main mystery, we see more of Perveen and Colin romance, which was really interesting to read given the era.

We see a divide among Indians and British, but we also see a divide among the different religions within Indians. You would think that we could have united despite of religion in order to gain independence, but no, which really wasn’t that surprising. I think that in terms of the history, it was interesting to read what actually happened in 1921 and also to know different people’s perception. Though fiction, these are facts picked from the actual history and are always a representation of the reality, if slightly altered. This series is not what I had imagined it would be, but now that I am in it, I will stick it out. I have rated The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey at 3/5 stars!

Until next time,