Sujata Massey’s Award-winning The Widows of Malabar Hill introduced Bombay lawyer Perveen Mistry, one of a few female lawyers in India in the early 1920s. Massey brings Perveen back for another adventure in The Satapur Moonstone, and it’s every bit as exciting a mystery as the first.

It’s 1922 and Perveen is asked to journey to the remote Sahyadri mountains to the state of Satapur. The royal family has recently seen its share of disasters: its maharaja died suddenly after taking ill and his eldest son died soon after in a hunting accident.

Now the dowager queen and her daughter-in-law maharani are at odds with how the next in line, a young crown prince, should be educated. With the British Raj agent involved in their rule, a woman is required as the two maharani’s live in purdah and do not speak to men.

After reluctantly agreeing to this venture, Perveen’s journey to the circuit house run by the Englishman Colin Sandringham is arduous, and it is even further to the royal palace in Satapur where the women await her visit. But Colin is interesting company and after a slight delay, Perveen is on her way inside a palanquin, being carried through the forest for the long and dangerous journey to the palace.

What she finds there, and show Perveen will cope with it, show her strength as well as her sleuthing skills. There are power plays and old secrets that threaten the young prince and his little sister, even as Perveen comes under threat. It will take all of her wiles to protect the royal children and carry out her commission.

The time and mores, the landscape and its dangers, all come alive under Massey’s graceful language and extensive research. Perveen is an interesting, intelligent woman, bound by Parsi customs and chafing at them due to her own history. It all makes for an absorbing read this is highly recommended.