Bombay's first female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring
justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as
Bombay's streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule. Sujata
Massey is back with this third installment to the Agatha and Mary
Higgins Clark Award-winning series set in 1920s Bombay.
November 1921. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India,
is arriving in Bombay to begin a fourmonth tour. The Indian subcontinent
is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn't
surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots.
But she's horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an
eighteen-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor
gallery just as the prince's grand procession is passing by her college.
Freny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and
what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an
accident. Feeling guilty for failing to have helped Freny in life,
Perveen steps forward to assist Freny's family in the fraught dealings
of the coroner's inquest. When Freny's death appears suspicious, Perveen
knows she can't rest until she sees justice done. But Bombay is
erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters
attack anyone with perceived British connections, and desperate
shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of
racial violence. Can Perveen help a suffering family when her own is in
danger?
