I enjoyed Sujata Massey’s Rei Shimura mysteries when I read them a few years back, and thought that the author had vanished since then. I was really pleased to spot this on my e-library app and checked it out right away. This is a new series set in 1920s Bombay and the protagonist is a young female solicitor, Perveen Mistry. I’m glad to report that it’s really good, and pleased to see the second in the series is already out and a third is due to join it soon. They are on my must read list.

A major part of this book is Perveen’s back story, at first I thought this was going on a bit too long, but it was an intriguing mystery in itself as to how she got from the situation you see her in five years previously - dropping out of a Bombay law school after some nasty bullying and becoming engaged to a soda bottler from Calcutta - to the working lawyer you see at the beginning of the book. In the main thread of the story Perveen works with the three widows of the title, all wives to the same man, who live in purdah where they don’t have any contact with other men. Perveen being able to enter into their home means that she can provide assistance that no other lawyer can.

The book doesn’t shy away from covering the issues raised by the state of purdah or numerous other issues that affect women in this time and place, for instance sexually transmitted diseases and the enforced seclusion of menstruating women play parts in the plot, and this kind of coverage of stuff that’s still often considered unmentionable today was both interesting and informative.

I’m really pleased to have found this series and am looking forward to more.