The Satapur Moonstone

December 1, 2018

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 18, 2019
Set in 1922, Edgar finalist Massey’s second whodunit featuring Bombay attorney Perveen Mistry is even better than the series’ impressive debut, 2018’s The Widows of Malabar Hill. Sir David Hobson-Jones, a top adviser to the governor of India, approaches Perveen, who has bucked gender prejudices to become one of India’s only female lawyers, on behalf of the Kolhapur Agency, a British civil service entity in need of a legal investigator to handle a delicate situation in the small state of Satapur. The state’s two maharanis are involved in a bitter debate over where the current maharajah, 10-year-old Jiva Reo, should be educated. Because the maharanis avoid contact with men, the authorities view Perveen as the ideal person to talk with them and issue an educational recommendation. Despite her misgivings at working for her country’s occupiers, Perveen accepts the assignment, only to learn that the two previous rulers of Satapur died within the last two years, leading her to fear that Reo is also at risk. The winning, self-sufficient Perveen should be able to sustain a long series. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary.

May 1, 2019
Massey's first Perveen Mistry investigations novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill (2018), set in 1920s India, saw the intrepid Mistry struggling to become India's first female lawyer. Now she's working steadily, but toiling on contracts isn't the life she imagined for herself. Excitement and danger come her way again, however, when she is asked to visit the royal family of rural Satapur. There Mistry represents (to her chagrin) British government interests in a dispute between a royal mother-in-law who sees status as everything and must keep her daughter-in-law in line, and the younger woman, who fears for her son, heir to a throne she worries he will never reach. This engaging story offers plenty on Parsi culture, how India's royalty and British rule clashed and collaborated before Independence, and how purdah (the seclusion of women) was practiced in everyday life. While there are some less-exciting sections that occasionally slow the narrative, this second in the series will certainly please readers looking for an engaging new female lead.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)