Book Review: The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey, January 9, 2018, Soho Press
Genre: historical mystery

This is the first in a new mystery series featuring a female Parsi lawyer at Mystry Law, a law firm in Bombay, India during the 1920s.
Having liked Sujata Massey's unusual and suspenseful Rei Shimura Mysteries set in Japan, I was eager to read her new novel featuring a female lawyer/sleuth in Bombay in the 1920s when there were so few professional career women. Perveen Mistry works in her father's law firm and was entrusted with the legal papers regarding the inheritance of three widows of a Muslim mill owner. Since they are in purdah, screened from the view of the public, Perveen, as a woman, is the ideal lawyer to help the widows. Complications involving a male guardian of the women arise and threaten the women's future and livelihood. Perveen steps in to protect the women but events lead to tension and murder. 

I enjoyed the historical and cultural aspects of The Widows of Malabar Hill as well as the character of Perveen, a young woman trying to find her way in a patriarchal society.  Perveenis is modeled on India's first woman lawyer, Cornelia Sorabji, a Parsi who practised in the 1920s . The plot is well structured and the book seems to be the start of a very promising historical mystery series.  

Book beginning:
A Stranger's Gaze
Bombay February 1921

On the morning Perveen saw the stranger, they'd almost collided. 
Parveen had come upon him half-hidden in the Portico entrance to Mistry House. The unshaven, middle-aged man appeared as if he had slept for several days and nights in his broadcloth shirt and the grimy cotton dhoti that hung in a thousand creases from his waist to his ankles. His small, squinting eyes were tired, and he exuded a rank odor of sweat mixed with betel nut. 
A visitor to Mistry Law this early was rare....

Page 57:
It felt almost treacherous to be in the car with such a man, because Perveen had been to gatherings with Indians seeking self-rule. In Oxford and London, she and Alice had attended a few such lectures together. 

Thanks to Soho Press for an advance edition for review.
Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

Sunday Salon: TV or a Book?

It's not as if I don't have any books to read. I have too many. But I went to have coffee in the bookstore and came out with two novels I couldn't resist.

The Leavers by Lisa Ko, May 2, 2017, Algonquin Books
Genre: literary fiction
I have started this and am fascinated by the young boy born in New York but raised till age six in China by his grandfather, whom he misses when he finally joins his mother in New York. His mother later leaves him suddenly and unexpectedly with friends in the city. How he grows up with the experiences of being left behind, and how he perhaps or perhaps not seeks out his mother again is the overriding question.

Lie To Me by J.T. Ellison, Septemer 5, 2017, Mira Books
Genre: psychological suspense
I couldn't resist another psychological thriller. There seems to be so many being published recently and is now a popular genre for many readers. This one involves someone who disappears from a testy relationship.

Other books that landed on my desk:

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, translated from the Japanese, November 14, 2017, courtesy of OneWorld Publication
Genre: novel in translation
I saw the movie based on this book on Netflix and really liked the story of a down-and-out older woman given a job making pancakes filled with bean paste. She helps the owner of the failing shop to attract buyers, with her delicious cooking. But she hides a secret that will be a huge problem as time goes by.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Pulished September 12, 2017, courtesy of Penguin Press
Genre: literary fiction
I loved the author's first book, Everything I Never Told You , and am looking forward to this new one. She presents complex situations involving Chinese-Americans in American environments.

A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food by David Downie, courtesy of St. Martin's Press

Genre: travel, food, nonfiction

Described as "a culinary history" of Paris, this book is one of several books on Paris and France by David Downie, an informative, entertaining, and well researched writer. 

The Girl at the Baggage Claim: Explaining the East-West Culture Gap by Gish Jen, courtesy of Knopf Publishers

Genre: nonfiction, social science

I'm looking forward to the author's ideas in this study of the differences between East and West in perceptions of the "self and society" and how these differences affect education, art, geopolitics, and business.  

I finished reading The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George after reading her The Little French Bistro and The Widows of Malabar Hill, a new historical mystery series set in India, by Sujata Massey. Reviews later in the month. 

I have been taking a break from watching Irma on TV and wishing the best for friends and family in Florida and Georgia. Luckily, the people I know live on the Florida east coast, where Irma seems to be having a slightly less of an impact, fingers crossed.

What are you reading or have you been glued to the TV?
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