Slide
The Mistress of Bhatia House
AVAILABLE NOW!

“Through Perveen, readers see an Oxford-educated lawyer from a privileged family plausibly contend with the sexism and racism of her time... and when Massey returns to the plot’s core mystery, she manages some nifty surprises. This is a transporting mystery.”
Publishers Weekly

Slide
The Mistress of Bhatia House
AVAILABLE NOW!

"While anchoring her novel in a mystery, Massey offers a striking depiction of India in the 1920s... A complex whodunit that also provides a fascinating immersion in a bygone era."
Kirkus

The New Perveen Mistry Novel Is Available Now!

Sujata Massey

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.

One of the Boston Globe’s Best New Books for Summer 2023:
“The new compelling installment in this excellent series following the adventures of Perveen Mistry finds our savvy solicitor frustrated by the limits of her own professional freedom as she tries to assist a young maidservant who may have been falsely accused of a crime.”

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?

Amazon Apple Books Audible Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million Kobo