Massey's books just keep getting better and better. There's a lot to love about her brand of mystery writing: it's historical fiction set in 1920's India, features a female solicitor who is successful, and the mystery is the perfect balance of puzzling and suspenseful without going too far either way. I've never felt lost reading her books, and the big reveals are always rewarding and well foreshadowed. I also love Perveen's character, she's clever, quick to act, and unafraid to do what she needs for her clients and her career.
Despite the name, this book only tangentially relates to princes, having taken place during Prince Edward's visit to Bombay, and focuses more on the death of a female student and the rising tensions within the city. If you're looking for a historical mystery that's well-written, set in an interesting location and time period, and is more than just a thriller, pick up this series, you won't regret it.

Perveen Mistry returns to right wrongs in Sujata Massey’s The Bombay Prince. This entry sees the first Parsi woman lawyer hoping for a few more cases for the family firm while tension starts to simmer across the city in anticipation of a visit from the Prince of Wales, the future (briefly) King Edward VIII. On a routine day, Perveen has a visit from a student of one of her friends. The student asks for Perveen’s opinion about whether or not her college can kick her out for her political activities. This little meeting ultimately leads Perveen into a murder investigation, religious and political tangles, parental disappointment, and perhaps another chance at love.

The Prince of Wales’ visit to India reveals a deep divide between pro-independence Indians and Indians who are content to remain a part of the empire. While the pro-British side prepare for celebrations, the pro-independence side (which includes Perveen’s young visitor, Freny) are also scrambling on their response of protests and demonstrations. Freny only wants to refrain from attending a parade with the rest of her college, a minor act of rebellion. But she worries about expulsion and her parents’ displeasure if anyone finds out. This worry, unfortunately, creates an opportunity for her murder. Just a few days after Perveen and Freny meet, Perveen sees Freny’s dead body on the grounds of her college. Perveen immediately springs into action to make sure that Freny gets justice—something that’s even more difficult when the police are on high alert.

The Bombay Prince was kind of a slow burn until events kicked off the closer Perveen got to the solution. That slowness gave Massey a chance to do a lot of character development. We see more of Perveen’s father than we ever have. We also get to see more of life in Bombay’s Parsi colonies (neighborhoods, but a little more formal I think) and how complicated life can be in a place where everyone has very strict rules about how to behave. For example, part of what Perveen has to do, in addition to making sure that the Bombay police don’t write Freny’s death as a suicide, is making sure that all of the coroner’s work gets done in time for Freny to have proper Parsi funeral rites. Best of all, at least for me, was that Colin Sandringham returns. Perveen was not lucky in love (as we learned in The Widows of Malabar Hill). Colin first popped up in The Satapur Moonstone. The connection that grew between them on that case gave me hope that Perveen might be able to have a husband and a family in the future, something Perveen claims she’s accepted that she’ll miss out on because of her disastrous marriage.

Fans of Perveen Mistry will enjoy this one, and wait eagerly for a new book so that we can find out what happens next.

The Bombay Prince is the third title in the Perveen Mistry series. 1920s India — Perveen is Bombay’s first female solicitor. With prestigious legal training from Oxford, as a woman she is not eligible for a degree. This particular story takes place during the 1921-22 Indian visit of Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales. With Gandhi’s call for a hartal (boycott) and others anxious to show loyalty to the crown, a great deal of violence and turmoil ensures. And in the middle of this, the body of a young female student is found on the missionary college grounds.

While the pacing is a little slow for me, the writing is good and the characters and historical situation are well described and embroidered with detail. I learned a lot from the descriptions of different religious groups, practices, and attitudes towards independence, toward the British, and toward women. Individual characters representing foreign journalists, businessmen, servants, and others were all well-done and enlightening. I’ll plan to go back and read the first two.

The Bombay Prince is the third of Ms. Massey’s titles featuring Perveen Mistry. This one is my favorite!

The story is set in the early 20th century when Perveen was the first female solicitor in India. Perveen was educated at Oxford when she could not attend law school in her own country. She is in a practice with her father.

At the time that this story begins, Prince Edward is traveling to India. It is a time of unrest and protest as many in India would like to leave British rule behind. Some of those who are protesting are students. In this context Freny, a young college student, consults with Perveen. Freny is later murdered (not really a spoiler as this happens early in the book). Who killed her? Why?

The story itself moves at a leisurely pace. Readers get to know Perveen better in this book. There is more time spent with her family. Perveen’s friend Alice and Colin (from the second book) also are quite present.

The settings are beautifully presented. There are the college, the hotels, clubs, storefronts and more. There is also a lot to learn about Indian culture, foods and funeral customs. The author’s care in including so much detail enhances the reader’s experience.

Ms. Massey has written this series and also an earlier one set in Japan. I recommend all of her books most highly.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I find historical mysteries fascinating: it's that magic of recreating a particular, often pivotal, moment in time, then building a narrative on top of it that illuminates that moment. In the last year or so, I've found myself reading several mysteries set in India during the struggle for independence and the sectarian violence during and after that period. The Perveen Mistry novels are a solid addition to that genre, particularly because the "detective" figure is India's (fictional, as far as I know) first female solicitor. Mistry studied law at Oxford after completing her education in India, though she couldn't receive a degree, as Oxford had not yet begun granting degrees to women at the time she attended. She then returned home to share a law practice with her father.

As with many historical mysteries, the heart of the novel isn't the mystery itself. Mistry is trying to track down the killer of a young Indian woman who was murdered on the day Prince Edward began his royal tour of the country. The author gives readers a reasonable number of suspects, but the plotting isn't all that complex. What's fascinating is the way Mistry navigates the currents of a society in the middle of intense transition: women entering professions, British rule being challenged, many types of new of relationships being built among Indians and Brits, Hindu/Parsi tensions (Mistry is Parsi), the narrow codes for acceptable female behavior, and class difference both across and within nationalities.

Read this book knowing that, while the mystery is competent, it's meeting Mistry and sharing the complexity of her thinking and life that are the real reward.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGally. The opinions are my own.

Such a lovely book! It was my first by this author and I'm so glad to have discovered her. The simple writing style reminds me vaguely of the Number One Detective Agency series. Though a murder mystery, there is so much to learn here about the Parasi culture, customs, funeral rites and rituals. One of those which stands out in my mind most is the furnished cottages with meals provided for grieving families. Brilliant.

Set in Bombay in 1921 and 1922, Perveen, a female lawyer, is an advocate for a young woman called Freny who comes to Perveen seeking advice. Should she or should she not attend a public event honouring Prince Edward VIII? When Freny is found dead at the event and her heartbroken family demands answers and Perveen and her father are willing to lend counsel. Freny had secrets. Riots, politics, danger, history, family and friendship dynamics contribute to the atmosphere as the perpetrator is sought.

We see the politics of the day and the increasing female presence. The entire book has a rich vibrancy from the cherry-red silk sari to the mango and other fruit trees to the fabulous pastry descriptions to the culture. I love the writing style, so appealing.

This book would intrigue General Fiction, Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction and Mystery readers and would be a shame to miss.

My sincere thank you to Independent Publishers Group and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this enticing book. The writing really clicked with me so I will happily read the author's other books.

Perveen returns for the third instalment of this sparkling series! Lighthearted enough to fit the conventions of the genre, yet also serious and timely.

Do you love historical mysteries with strong, spunky, smart female protagonists who have to solve mysteries against the odds? If you loved Perveen Mistry the 1st or the 2nd time you read about her, you will want to pick this 3rd installment up in June! If you haven’t fallen for Perveen yet, then you get the added bonus of snatching up all THREE books and binging on them over the summer.

Perveen Mistry is India’s 1st female solicitor who is fighting the social norms and expectations of her time. This installment transports you back into Bombay of the 1920s, where there is a growing movement towards Indian independence at the same time the Prince of Wales, aka the Bombay Prince, is coming to visit. Protests begin to erupt making the environment dangerous for all those trying to move through their daily lives.

Ahead of the royal visit, a student at a local college comes to Perveen for advice on how her student organization should handle the protests of Edward VIII’s visit. During the parade that same student suspiciously falls to her death, or does she?

Perveen feels compelled to help this student’s parents through the legal investigation that ensues, sometimes against their will.

Old friends are brought together in unexpected ways and new friends are made. The mystery can slowly be pieced together over the course of the book, if you are observant, but still the ending surprised me a bit - which all good mysteries should! I believe the book sets up great for a 4th installment. Know I will be waiting with baited breath for that announcement!

Book three of the excellent Perveen Mistry series is another highly anticipated and deeply satisfying story. Massey started readers on the journey of Perveen, India's first female lawyer with the first story - The Widows of Malabar. We were immediately gripped by the fascinating tale of Zoroastrian Perveen and her family, her careful navigation of social and family traditions, her disastrous marriage, and the intriguing landscape of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Zoroastrianism in 1920's India.
This third story has Perveen back in town, working alongside her father, but not too far removed from her immensely engaging and dangerous time in the remote, princely state of Satapur, described in the second book - The Satapur Moonstone.
Now it is 1921 and the young Prince Edward, heir to the British throne, has come to India for a state visit. At this time, Gandhi and others have been agitating for independence from Great Britain, which forms a volatile situation with the state visit. Indians start to distrust one another, as well as the British, leading to riots and killings.
At center stage in this story is a local college which allows women students, but with strict restrictions. The college requires its students to be patriotic to the King, setting the stage for a deadly clash, as many of the young students wish for independence. Perveen gets involved as a female student comes to her for advice. Perveen's great friend from Oxford, Alice, is teaching at the college. And the very appealing character Colin Sandringham, who met Perveen in Satapur, also makes an appearance.
Massey has a created an entirely vivid world in this series - with deeply beautiful writing, a strong, compelling sense of place, perfect characterizations, and authentic dialogue. If the contemporary reader gets frustrated with the constant setbacks of Perveen's attempts to break the gender barrier, this just adds to the realism of the series. We cannot begin to realize just how difficult it was for women at that time, though this series does give voice to it, as well as the social mores, generally, and the Zoroastrian culture, specifically. It is most refreshing and truly exciting to have such a literary, authentic voice given to this era in India's history.

Perveen Mistry has rapidly become one of my favorite cozy mystery sleuths. Set 1920s India, she's the country's only female solicitor. The combo of the setting, the time, and multi-layered levels of law that she must navigate within the books allows me to learn a great deal while also giving me a great story to read.

Book three takes place on the eve of Edward VIII, Prince of Wales', visit to Bombay. The country is not happy with being under British rule and the Prince's visit is causing much unrest. During a royal procession, a female student, recently known to Perveen, dies after falling from the second story of a building. Once the death is ruled a murder, the suspects are many and it's only through the diligent piecing together of the facts that Perveen discovers the killer.

We get to see more of Perveen's relationship with her family, how a woman navigates this so heavily dominated man's world, and a growing attachment to a certain someone. Another wonderful entry in the series, this will be out in June so mark your calendars.

Well written and engaging story of the first female lawyer in British Raj Bombay. The story was well crafted and kept me engaged and not wanting to put the book down. I was not able to figure out the solution to the main murder until it was reveled at the end. Though the murder was the central theme of the book, there was much more to the book. I learned a lot about colonial India, the cultural diversity of India and Parsi India through the reading. There was real depth offered. I appreciated the explanation and translations of words and concepts that were new to me as someone who had only limited exposure to India and various Indian cultural / religious groups through a couple of visits to parts of India. The glossary, when added, will be a big plus to foster a fuller understanding of the story and culture. While reading I wished there was one and was pleased to see a spave left for one in the version of the manuscript was reading. I loved being brought back to good memories of Mumbai (Bombay) and the Taj Hotel. The characters were well crafted and multi-dimensional. The "feminist" aspects of the story were very appealing.
Read the book and gain a bit of insight into a part of Indian history and culture.

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey is another engaging edition to the Perveen Mistry series, set in a time and country I know very little about which makes learning more of her world, all the more enjoyable. .

This has become one of my most anticipated mystery series. Perveen is an appealing character, and her efforts to succeed as a female lawyer in 1920s Bombay are presented in a realistic way - for example, the small triumph of speaking for her client at a coroner's inquest. It was also heartening that hope remains for her potential love interest, in light of her previous unhappy marriage.

The mystery involves a murder that takes place during the riots set off by the visit of the Prince of Wales. The future King Edward VIII only appears in the background, while the focus is on local attitudes toward British rule. Supporting characters from all walks of life enrich the story, and visits to several of Bombay's landmark buildings and public spaces help set the scene.

Recommended for fans of historical mysteries along the lines of Jacqueline Winspear.

A wonderful addition to a great historical mystery series set in India with the first female solicitor as the main character. ,,This entry focuses on Edward's visit to Bombay and the Indian Independence movement.

I'd like to thank Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Perveen Mistry is back solving murder mysteries in Bombay! SATAPUR MOONSTONE, the second book in Massey’s 1920s-set mysteries following Bombay’s first female solicitor, was a perfectly functional murder mystery adventure, but lacked the charm THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL which benefited from a very character-driven narrative, a cast of colorful supporting characters and the city of Bombay itself. The concept of ‘social mapping’ is briefly touched upon in the book: it concerns the mapping of how cities evolve, and how every landmark and every family is steeped in rich history. Much like Bombay, Perveen has a life that we’ve gotten to know over the course of two books. Familiar faces such as her delightful best friend, Alice, the Mistry family, Mistry House’s manservant, Mustafa, and even Colin Sandringham from Satapur (whom I didn’t particularly care for earlier, but is beginning to grow on me) return in this instalment.

And like pre-independence Bombay, Perveen is thinking ahead while treading untested waters. We are back to a more personal narrative as Perveen solves the murder of a bright female college student whom she deeply identified with. But it’s not just the case that feels personal. Massey takes time to explore Perveen’s dynamic with the rest of the Mistry family. One particular conversation between her and her sister-in-law, Gulnaz stuck with me long after I read it: It’s a conversation every single woman has had to deal with and it left me feeling angry and helpless.

Speaking of pre-independence India, the civil unrest in the 1920s is not something I come across very often in fiction. Events of THE BOMBAY PRINCE take place during the Prince of Wales’ (Charles’ uncle) visit to Bombay, and the uprising and communal violence it incited makes up a significant chunk of the novel. So much so that I feel the novel is only part murder mystery. The remaining part is an anthropological portrait of what Bombay society might have been like at the time. I do have one gripe though, and that is the incorrect year of the prince’s visit, which was in 1921 and not in 1922 when SATAPUR MOONSTONE and PRINCE is set. At first, I’d assumed PRINCE was set before SATAPUR, but that turned out not to be the case once Colin appeared.

Perveen’s being educated in many lines of law, as well as her personal history with family law, has allowed Massey to include of legal procedures in her books. In PRINCE we get to see a coroner’s inquest, and we get to see how Indians and British officials might have butted heads on formalities and jurisdiction. We’re also introduced to some new characters in the enigmatic American journalist, J. P. Singer, and a kindly library patron, Mr. Dass. We’re also told of Perveen’s connection to THE Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Given how Massey has made it a point to tell a long-haul story as opposed to isolated ones, I hope we get to see more of these characters in future books!

This is the third volume in the Perveen Mistry series. I enjoyed the previous books and this one does not disappoint. It is 1921 and the Prince of Wales is visiting India. The independence movement is growing and there is unrest. A young female student who has just consulted with Perveen is found dead after the Prince's parade. And so the story begins. Perveen once again delicately works her way to the solution ever mindful of society's restrictions for women at the time. I really like the way this author shows us the cultural and social norms of India in the 1920s and how she manages to have Perveen remain true to these while she solves crimes.

I started reading Sujata Massey years ago when I found out about her Rei Shimura series. I didn't think those could be topped, but with Perveen Mistry she has. Perveen, the first woman lawyer in India, isn't allowed to be a trial attorney, but being a woman, and a Parsi woman at that, can get her into places her father and other lawyers can't go. When the Prince of Wales visits India, students at a nearby college plan a protest which goes terribly wrong, and Perveen gets tied up in it both emotionally and as a lawyer. I learned more about the Zoroastrian faith of Perveen's family and the place the Parsi community had in the fight for Indian Independence, too. Overall, this was a well written book that kept me guessing until the very end. I eagerly look forward to the next Perveen Mistry mystery!

Author bad habits are getting in the way of me reading any more of this series.

There's so much to love!: a main character whose life and history are revealed and become more complex book by book; an array of characters who, though sometimes slim side appearances only, display the variety of Indian citizens; plots influenced by local, national, and international politics.

The writing is too clunky, though, and has not gotten better as the series has progressed. Some information is repeated multiple times, unnecessarily. Other information is contradicted only a short while later. Conversations feel full of non sequiturs and sudden changes in topic.

A series with a lot to recommend it, if readers are less sensitive (picky?) about the writing.

The third in a series, The Bombay Prince is a fun murder mystery that takes place in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1920's, when the Indian Independence movement was growing. The strong lead character, Preveen Mistry, is a divorced Parsi woman who works with her lawyer father and is the only female solicitor in Bombay. Always on her best behavior publically due to her position, Preveen happens to be nearby when Freny, a college student, is found dead outside a co-ed college. Preveen and her friend Alice, a teacher at the college, think that the wrong person has been accused of the murder and decide to seek answers. With her father's help, Preveen uncovers layers of intrigue and accidentally places herself in danger. Readers fascinated by the complexities of early 2oth century India and by solving crimes will enjoy this well-written book.

Perveen Mistry, Bombay's first lady solicitor, is back and once again finds herself caught up in a mystery. When Freny Cuttingmaster, a girl who came to Perveen for legal advice earlier in the week is found dead after what looks like an accidental fall, Perveen finds herself drawn into the case. Set with the backdrop of violent protests throughout Bombay in response to a visit from the Prince of Wales, Perveen navigates a city where danger is lurking behind every corner.
I really enjoy Perveen's adventures. This book delved more into her relationship with her father and we also got to spent time with her best friend Alice, who is a teacher at the college Freny Cuttingmaster attended. Also, I'm really excited and looking forward to Perveen's developing relationship with Colin, who is along for the Prince of Wales' tour...she deserves some personal happiness after what she went through in her marriage.