Publisher Description
India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Satara mountains southeast of Bombay, where the kingdom of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur's royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic accident. The kingdom is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur's two maharanis, the dowager queen and the maharaja's widow. The royal ladies are in dispute over the education of the young crown prince, and a lawyer's council is required-but the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men. Just one person can help them: Perveen Mistry, India's only female lawyer. Perveen is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young prince's future, but knows she is breaking a rule by traveling alone as a woman into the remote countryside. And she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace's deadly curse?
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“Sneha Mathan makes the fictional state of Satapur in 1920s India seem real through her portrayal of lawyer-turned-detective Paveen Mistry. Mathan’s narration is quick, light, and easy on the ear, helping us make sense of the palace intrigue that soon entangles Paveen…Mathan balances the heroine’s plucky, smart spirit and ongoing arch interior monologue with a deftness that has us chuckling even as the danger around her mounts. Will she able to settle the women’s dispute and navigate palace intrigues? Mathan keeps us hanging on every word in order to find out.”
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AudioFile
About Sujata Massey
Sujata Massey is the author of the Perveen Mistry series for which the first novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark awards. She has also written a novella, two stand-alone novels, and a dozen novels in the Rei Shimura series. She was born in England to parents from India and Germany, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun before becoming a full-time novelist. She was born in England to parents from India and Germany, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit her website at sujatamassey.com.