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The Widows of Malabar Hill

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The Widows of Malabar Hill

Written by: Sujata Massey
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
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Introducing an extraordinary female lawyer-sleuth in a new historical series set in 1920s Bombay! Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and protecting women's legal rights. Mistry Law has been appointed to execute the will of Mr. Omar Farid, a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But as Perveen is going through the paperwork, she notices something strange: all three of the wives have signed over their full inheritance to a charity. What will they live on if they forfeit what their husband left them? Perveen is suspicious, especially since one of the widows has signed her form with an X-meaning she probably couldn't even read the document. The Farid widows live in full purdah-in strict seclusion, never leaving the women's quarters or speaking to any men. Are they being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous guardian? Perveen tries to investigate, and realizes her instincts about the will were correct when tensions escalate to murder. Now it is her responsibility to figure out what really happened on Malabar Hill, and to ensure that no innocent women or children are in further danger. Inspired in part by a real woman who made history by becoming India's first female lawyer, The Widows of Malabar Hill is a richly wrought story of multicultural 1920s Bombay as well as the debut of a sharp and promising new sleuth, Perveen Mistry.©2018 Sujata Massey (P)2018 Recorded Books Detective Fiction Historical International Mystery & Crime Mystery Traditional Detectives Women Sleuths Marriage Law Crime
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The setting was interesting and the story was good, but it was spoiled by the narration. The narrator did a good job on the different voices of the characters, but for the rest of the story, she had an unusual rhythm of emphasizing some words (perhaps trying to add to the drama) which was distracting.

Might have enjoyed reading book more.

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This book comes across as a sort of young adult historical romance (except for all the romantic disappointments). The narrator assumes the voice of a naive adolescent and I feel that this detracts from what might have been an interesting bit of crime fiction

Young adult historical fiction?

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I had kind of assumed, based on the blurb, that this would be more of a mystery story, but it read like general fiction (a genre I don't delve into all that often). But I wasn't disappointed, because it turned out to be a very interesting listen. It was set in a time and place that I had little previous knowledge of- the author described the setting with care and detail, making it that much more interesting. The characters were well-written and interesting and behaved in believable ways. And the mystery aspect wasn't bad, either, even though it did feel kind of secondary and not particularly urgent. I look forward to the author's next book.

more dramatic than mysterious

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Will Cyrus appear again? Will Parveen become a women's rights crusader? Will Alice join the Mistry firm? Loved it

So enjoyable a cozy mystery

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Too many flashbacks. It felt like the editor came back that the murder was too short and the author was asked to pad it out. I found the whole experience tedious.

Romance or murder

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