An International Bestselling Author
An Award-winning Author
An American Library Association Reading List for Mystery: Winner and Top Pick
Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award
Winner of the Lefty Award for Best Historical Novel
Winner of the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel
Winner of the Sue Feder Macavity Memorial Award for Best Historical Mystery
Finalist for the Shamus Award
A Publishers Weekly Best Book
An ABA IndieNext Selection
A Perveen Mistry Novel
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 legal education from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes women's legal rights especially important to her.
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 examines 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? 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 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.