Inspired in part by the woman who made history as India's first female attorney, The Widows of Malabar Hill is a richly wrought story of multicultural 1920s Bombay as well as the debut of a sharp and promising new sleuth.
Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes women's legal rights especially important to her.
Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen examines the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. What will they live on? Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X--meaning she probably couldn't even read the document.
The Farid widows live in full purdah--in strict seclusion, never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger.
About the Author :
Sujata Massey is the author of the Perveen Mistry series for which the first novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark awards. She has also written a novella, two stand-alone novels, and a dozen novels in the Rei Shimura series. She was born in England to parents from India and Germany, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun before becoming a full-time novelist. Visit her website at sujatamassey.com.
Soneela is a classically trained actress with over 500 titles in many genres including her specialties: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, and Sci-Fi. She has garnered 26 Earphone awards, an Audie; and was awarded AudioFile magazine's Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. Her audiobooks have been featured in AudioFile Magazine, The Washington Post, Audible and The New York Times. She is known for her facility with languages and accents and her flexibility to handle a range of genres and styles. She loves to inspire hope, swooning and laughter in her listeners.
Review :
"Deft prose and well-wrought characters, is a splendid first installment in what promises to be a memorable series."
-- " Wall Street Journal"
"Marvelously plotted, richly detailed...This is a first-rate performance inaugurating a most promising series."
-- "Washington Post"
"Nankani delivers the general narration in a warm American voice and gives a trim, restrained Indian accent to the dialogue."
-- "Washington Post (audio review)"
"Soneela Nankani's narration brings 1920s Bombay and Calcutta to life...Nankani adopts a soft, uninflected tone for the narrative and incorporates a variety of subtle Indian accents for the dialogue...[An] engaging mystery with a surprising number of twists and turns. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."
-- "AudioFile"
"The book is filled with fascinating bits of culture and history, a look at India's Parsi and Muslim communities, well-written courtroom scenes, and even a locked-room murder."
-- "Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine"
