THE MISTRESS OF BHATIA HOUSE
Perveen Mistry Mysteries, Book 4
Bombay’s only female solicitor, Perveen Mistry, grapples with class divisions, sexism, and complex family dynamics as she seeks justice for a mistreated young woman in this thrilling fourth installment in Sujata Massey’s award-winning series.
India, 1922: Perveen Mistry is the only female lawyer in Bombay, a city where child mortality is high, birth control is unavailable and very few women have ever seen a doctor.
Perveen is attending a lavish fundraiser for a new women’s hospital specializing in maternal health issues when she witnesses an accident. The grandson of an influential Gujarati businessman catches fire—but a servant,
Bombay’s only female solicitor, Perveen Mistry, grapples with class divisions, sexism, and complex family dynamics as she seeks justice for a mistreated young woman in this thrilling fourth installment in Sujata Massey’s award-winning series.
India, 1922: Perveen Mistry is the only female lawyer in Bombay, a city where child mortality is high, birth control is unavailable and very few women have ever seen a doctor.
Perveen is attending a lavish fundraiser for a new women’s hospital specializing in maternal health issues when she witnesses an accident. The grandson of an influential Gujarati businessman catches fire—but a servant, his young ayah, Sunanda, rushes to save him, selflessly putting herself in harm’s way. Later, Perveen learns that Sunanda, who’s still ailing from her burns, has been arrested on trumped-up charges made by a man who doesn’t seem to exist.
Perveen cannot stand by while Sunanda languishes in jail with no hope of justice. She takes Sunanda as a client, even inviting her to live at the Mistry home in Bombay’s Dadar Parsi colony. But the joint family household is already full of tension. Perveen’s father worries about their law firm taking so much personal responsibility for a client, and her brother and sister-in-law are struggling to cope with their new baby. Perveen herself is going through personal turmoil as she navigates a taboo relationship with a handsome former civil service officer.
When the hospital’s chief donor dies suddenly, Miriam Penkar, a Jewish-Indian obstetrician, and Sunanda become suspects. Perveen’s original case spirals into a complex investigation taking her into the Gujarati strongholds of Kalbadevi and Ghatkopar, and up the coast to Juhu Beach, where a decadent nawab lives with his Australian trophy wife. Then a second fire erupts, and Perveen realizes how much is at stake. Has someone powerful framed Sunanda to cover up another crime? Will Perveen be able to prove Sunanda’s innocence without endangering her own family?
- Soho Crime
- Hardcover
- July 2023
- 432 Pages
- 9781641293297
Buy the Book
$27.95
About Sujata Massey
Sujata Massey 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. The first Perveen Mistry novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, was an international bestseller and won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards.
Praise
A Best Summer Reading Selection from the Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Baltimore Sun
“Massey’s evocative mysteries featuring Mistry have always woven political, cultural and critical social issues into a compelling historical mystery. This one’s threads could be worn today.” –Carole E. Barrowman, The Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[Massey] grapples with class divisions and sexism as Mistry, the city’s only female solicitor, seeks justice for a mistreated young nursemaid.” —Baltimore Sun
“[A] compelling installment in this excellent series.” —Boston Globe
“A complex whodunit that also provides a fascinating immersion in a bygone era.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Provocative… Through Perveen, readers see an Oxford-educated lawyer from a privileged family plausibly contend with the sexism and racism of her time and place–and when Massey returns to the plot’s core mystery, she manages some nifty surprises. This is a transporting mystery.” —Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
1. Gender roles play an important role in how people, especially potential clients, interact with Perveen. How do you think she handles the different expectations that men and women have of her?
2. A person’s reputation is a key theme in the novel, especially when it comes to romantic or sexual relationships. For example, it is said that “Colin’s reputation could be destroyed if word got around about a woman seeking him out” (p. 29). Additionally, as Perveen explains to Judge Kanga, “‘If an unmarried woman is exposed for having had intercourse, she is likely to lose the chance to work in a respectable occupation, or to remain accepted by her parents and family. She would likely never find a groom willing to take her in marriage’” (p. 408-409). Discuss the importance of one’s reputation in today’s society. How have things changed or not changed since then?
3. Uma Bhatia introduces Perveen to Woman and the New Race, a 1920 text by Margaret Sanger about how contraception should be more accessible to married women. Are you familiar with this text? Do you think the claims it makes are still relevant today? Why or why not?
4. The tension between Perveen and Gulnaz due to Gulnaz’s role as a new mother causes Perveen to have some conflicting feelings about her womanhood. How does this internal struggle affect your opinion of her character?
5. Do you think Gulnaz’s decision to go home to her family was the right thing to do for her? How about for Khushy and Rustom? Why or why not?
6. Perveen’s life has its own constraints and challenges, but, as she learns over the course of the story, her family’s financial status allows her more freedom than lower-caste women like Sunanda. How do you think Perveen handles this privilege?
7. Did you suspect foul play in Sir Dwarkanath’s death? Were you surprised when his killer was revealed?
8. What was your initial opinion of Cora? Did your perception of her change over the course of the story?
9. In the novel, Perveen is Bombay’s only female solicitor and Dr. Miriam Penkar is the city’s only Indian female obstetrician-gynecologist. Do you think their unique social statuses bring them closer together? If so, how?
10. Who or what would you say is the primary antagonist of the novel? Is it the killer, society, or something else?