The second book in Massey's new series set in India in the 1920s and featuring a Parsi female soliciter who works for her father's law firm when she is not solving mysteries.
Perveen is employed by the British Raj's Kolhapur Agency, which "oversees" the administration of 25 princedoms and feudal states that are not directly ruled by the British, but must comply with British oversight.
Perveen travels to the remote mountain kingdom of Satapur to resolve a dispute between the widowed grandmother and mother of the 10-year-old heir to the throne, Prince Jiva Rao. The young prince's mother wants to send her son to England for his education. His grandmother is adamant that her grandson remain at home with the elderly tutor who taught the prince's father and elder brother. The British agent who oversees the kingdom as the guardian of the widows and the children has been refused access to the Maharanis, because the elder Maharani insists that she and her daughter-in-law observe "purdah," the custom of strict seclusion that women from having any contact with males outside their immediate family.
Perveen hopes she can broker a compromise between the royal ladies, since she is empowered, as a representative of the Kolhapur Agency, to decide where the prince will be educated.
However, she arrives at the palace to find it is a hotbed of intrigue and cold-blooded vendettas. The royal family seems to be cursed: the last Maharaja died of cholera; his elder son died shortly after in a gruesome hunting accident. Fear for the safety of the last remaining son is at the heart of the dispute between his grandmother and mother. Adding to the tension is the late Maharaja's ambitious brother, who serves as Satapur's Prime Minister. If he has higher ambitions, he keeps them to himself, since the British would never countenance his succession to the throne.
Too late, Perveen realizes she is caught in a trap, her own life is at risk, and she has no idea who she can trust.
An exotic setting, a strong-willed and intelligent heroine, and children who are paying for the sins of the past.
Click HERE to read the * review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from the New York Journal of Books.
Click HERE to read the review from The Hindu.com
Click HERE to read the review from Aunt Agatha's blog.
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