The Satapur Moonstone

In the second of Ms Massey’s Perveen Mistry series we find the lawyer in the hills of the princely state of Satapur. The state is at the northern edge of the Western Ghats mountain range near the Western coast of India. The year is 1922 and the British still rule the country but the independence movement is gathering strength.

Perveen Jamshedji Mistry is a short young lady with plenty of courage and no lack of intelligence. It is no surprise to find that one of the first female lawyers in India is an enthusiastic supporter of Mr Ghandi. She is married but, separated and having reverted to her maiden name works for her father's law firm in Bombay.

Miss Mistry has been persuaded by her friend Alice Hobson-Jones and her father Sir David Hobson-Jones a senior member of the Bombay Governor's advisers to take on a job of peacemaker in a royal family dispute. The issue causing the rift is the education of the next Maharaja of Satapur. The child's mother wants an English education while the grandmother wants her grandson to stay at home in Satapur.

It is not long before Perveen discovers the untimely deaths of the previous incumbents and senses that the child may be in danger. However, her journey to the Palace is interrupted by a lack of suitable transport caused by a suspiciously timely accident. Once at the Palace Perveen must act quickly, but with tact and diplomacy to make a success of her visit. She soon realises how difficult and dangerous a mission she has accepted when she narrowly avoids being poisoned.

The exotic location, the heat and rains, the strict social order and the unusual characters like Aditya, the Palace Buffoon all add to the atmosphere of this regal accession murder mystery. There is a languid easy feel portraying the way of life in the humid jungle. This is a gloriously descriptive, imaginatively plotted and thrillingly concluded tale. Ms Massey has created a majestic evocation of the period and has another captivating success.