The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey ** (of 4)

Perveen Mistry is the first female solicitor in Bombay, India. Bristling under the dual oppressions of British colonial rule and overwhelming male domination in Indian society, Perveen is assigned a legal case for three women whose lives are even more circumscribed than her own. Her clients are the three wives of a recently deceased Muslim owner of a textile mill. They live in Purdah, the far side of a screened-off portion of their home out of visual contact with all men. When their husband dies, his estate is placed in the hands of a (very mean) male overseer, who midway through the book dies by the hands of an unknown assailant. On the plus side, the sense of 1920s India feels quite realistic. Moreover, I cannot think of another book of this type in which a woman's menses features so prominently. Unfortunately, the book is slow-ish, the dialogue stiff, and Perveen's feminist ideals might be in line with what was percolating among suffragists in England and her colonies, or might, on the other hand, be anachronistic.