1920s Bombay was a rich ferment of cultures, traditions, and change. India was still part of the British Raj, but nationalism was in the air. Women had few rights, but some were breaking into male-dominated professions. Massey’s new mystery series introduces Perveen Mistry, a lawyer, feminist, and, once she notices something troubling in a will she’s executing, a detective. Why would all three widows of a wealthy Muslim mill owner leave themselves destitute by giving up their inheritance? One woman signed with an X; how could she have read the document? The women live in purdah, isolated from men and the world. As Mistry works her way through the legal and social layers between herself and the widows, Massey, award-winner author of The Salaryman’s Wife, The Flower Master, and many others, unravels an intricate mystery in a fascinating historical setting.
Massey will be in conversation with Leeya Mehta, a prize-winning poet whose fiction and non-fiction have been published in the US, UK and India. Leeya grew up with a view of Malabar Hill in Mumbai, and is currently finishing a novel set in Mumbai and Washington.