The Widows of Malabar Hill

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey takes place in 1920s India. As the inside cover blurb states it is inspired by a woman who made history as India's first female attorney and is the debut of a new sleuth.

Perveen Mistry is a solicitor in her father's law firm.  She cannot legally appear in court but can prepare contracts and wills and earns a major share of the firm's monies.  When the firm is appointed to execute the will of their client Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner with 3 wives, Perveen notices something unusual in the paperwork.  As a female, she is able to speak directly with the wives and sets out for their home on Malabar Hill.  She believes that they are being taken advantage of as all 3 of them have signed over their inheritance to a charity.  Then their guardian is murdered.

The first half of the book is Purveen's story.  She was harassed by men while attending the India government's law school and quit.  Purveen then falls in love with a man named Cyrus and their families allow them to marry even though the parents did not arrange the marriage. The mother-in-law was old-fashioned and forced Purveen into seclusion for 8 days during menstruation. Her husband found love elsewhere during these weeks and brought her a venereal disease. When she confronts him about it Cyrus beats her. A court case allowed a legal separation based on the 1865 Parsi Marriage Act which favored men.  The Act only allowed separation if a man committed adultery but sex with a prostitute was not considered adultery. Perveen did not know who Cyrus was sleeping with. This experience causes Perveen to dig for clues that will unravel the mysteries of the relationships between the widows at Malabar Hill as well as solve the murder.

This book was a page turner.  I read it in one sitting. While the main thrust of the novel began at the halfway point, the author had been alternating back and forth in Perveen's life so much that it did not seem distracting.

Perveen is a compelling female character. For a  woman of her era, she is quite modern in her thinking. Part of this comes from her marriage experience.  Another part comes from her mother.  Her mother, while a homemaker, grumbled over the strictures of the family's Parsi faith early in her own life.  Her mother encouraged her to get an education instead of marrying early.  She told Perveen that a time would come when women would be allowed to practice law fully and that Perveen should be prepared for this. When Perveen's marriage hit hard times over the seclusion issue, it was her mother who convinced her father to provide Cyrus and Perveen money for their own home.  She will be a wonderful sleuth for a series.

The book is more than historical fiction. It is also a murder mystery.  The murder of the wives' guardian occurs at the halfway point and the book then focuses on solving the crime.  The first half seems to be historical fiction and the second half is a mystery. This is a little unusual but the book reads seamlessly.

I enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it!