The Widows of Malabar Hill

The Widows of Malabar Hill is a 2018 historical mystery novel by Sujata Massey. The novel is the first in Massey’s Perveen Mistry series and won several awards, including the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Set in 1920s Bombay (present-day Mumbai), the novel follows Perveen Mistry, a young woman who joined her father’s law firm and became one of the first female lawyers in India. Despite her family’s support, she must struggle against prejudice and her tragic past to make her way in the world. When one of the firm’s clients dies, Perveen notices some irregularities in his estate planning and worries that his three widows will be left penniless. Since the women live in strict purdah (a religious and social practice of gender partition) and do not speak to men, it is up to her to explain their legal rights and help them navigate the intricacies of inheritance law. As she gets to know the widows, she quickly realizes that the case is more complicated and dangerous than she had guessed.

This study guide refers to the eBook version of the Soho Press edition.

Content Warning: The source text includes discussions of racism, addiction, abuse, and violence.

Plot Summary

In 1921 Bombay (present-day Mumbai), Perveen Mistry, the first female solicitor in the city, is working at her family’s law firm. She encounters a disheveled Bengali man outside her office who refuses to speak and flees when questioned. Perveen is concerned because the man resembles her estranged husband, Cyrus Sodawalla, who threatened revenge on her family.

The narrative alternates between the narrative present in 1921 and flashbacks to Perveen’s history. In 1916, Perveen is 19 years old and faces hostility as the only female law student at Elphinstone College in Bombay. After a series of humiliations, she meets Cyrus Sodawalla, who comforts her and asks to meet again. Their relationship deepens, leading Cyrus to propose marriage during a beach outing. Perveen agrees, contingent on their families' approval. Although her parents disapprove, they become engaged. Their wedding in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) is lavish, but Perveen is disheartened by her grandfather's absence.

Married life is also difficult. Cyrus becomes increasingly absorbed in his work at the bottling plant, while Perveen struggles with domestic duties and outdated customs enforced by her mother-in-law, Behnoush. For example, Behnoush confines Perveen to a small room during her menstrual cycle. Perveen attempts to enroll in a local college but learns that married women need their in-laws' consent. Her marriage deteriorates when she learns that she has a venereal disease, which Cyrus claims he contracted from a past visit to a sex worker. Perveen suspects infidelity, and tensions rise further when she discovers her in-laws have pestered her parents for money. When she goes to Cyrus’s office to discuss this with him, she finds him with a sex worker. After a violent confrontation in which Cyrus beats her, she leaves him for good and flees to her parents’ house.

In 1917, Perveen is living with her parents. She learns that her grandfather died while she was in Calcutta and that her in-laws destroyed the letters notifying her, meaning she missed his funeral. As her father helps her build a legal case for her divorce, she is frustrated by the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, which limits women's rights. Determined to change the law, she decides to attend law school in England if the separation is approved. In court, Perveen's father reveals Cyrus’s abuse. He also proves that Cyrus’s younger sister was left alone in menstrual seclusion when she had a fever, which killed her. Cyrus vows revenge, but the jury grants Perveen a separation. She boards a steamer to Oxford, where she befriends Alice Hobson-Jones and feels hopeful for a new start.

In 1921, Perveen discusses the will of a deceased client, Omar Farid, with her father. Farid’s widows wish to donate their inheritance to a charitable organization called a wakf, but Perveen is concerned that their male estate manager is manipulating them. The women are purdahnashins—Muslim women who do not speak with men to whom they are unrelated. Her father allows her to speak with the widows directly since they won’t converse with him.

Alice arrives from London, and Perveen meets her family, Sir David and Lady Gwendolyn, at their mansion. Sir David is a prominent politician in the British colonial government, which makes Perveen uneasy since she opposes British rule. Alice confides in Perveen that her parents plan to force her to marry due to her lesbian identity and bohemian lifestyle.

Perveen then visits the Farid bungalow to meet with the widows. Mukri, the estate trustee, is hostile, but Perveen persuades him to let her return the next day. She encounters the widows (Razia, Sakina, and Mumtaz) and their children, including Razia’s daughter, Amina. Perveen questions Sakina about their financial situation and learns that Mukri misled Sakina about how the wakf worked. Sakina is shocked to realize that Razia is the manager of the wakf and must approve everything. Razia is surprised by Mukri’s plans to change the wakf from a charity for war veterans to a school for boys. Perveen concludes that Mukri must be removed. While discussing options with Mumtaz, Mukri interrupts and threatens Perveen. She escapes, and when she returns later to retrieve her briefcase, she discovers Mukri’s lifeless body with a knife in it.

The police investigate Mukri’s murder. The case generates neighborhood rumors, and the women in purdah are under suspicion. The police have also arrested the gate guard, Mohsen, and his young daughter, Fatima. Perveen speaks to the women in the zenana (a part of a house that is reserved for the women of the household) and hears conflicting accounts of the murder. Razia confesses to killing Mukri to protect her daughter, but Perveen suspects the story may be a cover for Amina.

Amina disappears, but none of the widows want to call the police. Perveen discovers that Mumtaz is pregnant and fears retaliation from the other wives. She confronts Mohsen, the detained servant, who admits he stole money from the widows for his son’s medical needs. He insists that he is guilty of theft but not murder. Perveen demands better protection for the women and refuses to help the police fingerprint them, asserting her power as an attorney. She also exhorts them to release Mohsen, providing evidence of his alibi.

Later that evening, Perveen is lured to the Farid bungalow and is kidnapped. She awakens trapped in a bag in a storeroom at the docks. Using a hairpin to cut her way out, she calls for help and is rescued by Jayanth, a former client and friendly dockworker. Back with her family, Perveen expresses her fears about Cyrus. Her father explains that the mysterious stranger from Bengal was a detective who had been tracking Cyrus. Cyrus is currently in a charitable hospital in Bombay.

Perveen and Alice look over the Farid residence plans and discover a hidden passage that allows access between the husbands’ and wives’ rooms. They devise a plan to sneak into the bungalow to investigate further. Inside the passage, Perveen finds Amina unconscious and is confronted by Sakina, who admits to killing Mukri out of jealousy. She and Mukri were cousins and teenage lovers, but her family married her off to the much older Farid to keep her away from him. After Farid’s death, Mukri promised they could live well off the wakf and get married. When Amina discovered evidence that Sakina had killed Mukri, the older woman drugged her. Sakina also ordered Mohsen to carry out Perveen’s kidnapping. Just as Sakina lunges at Perveen with a knife, police led by Alice arrive and arrest her. Sakina and Mohsen both go to prison, while Raiza and Mumtaz live happily.

Sir David thanks Perveen for her assistance, and she hopes they will have a fruitful relationship with conversations about self-rule. She visits a local hospital to draft a will for a man who is dying. The man turns out to be Cyrus under a false name. He is heavily disfigured from syphilis and begs her to kill him, but she refuses and leaves him to his fate. Perveen feels a burden lifted and is no longer afraid. At a hotel, she and Alice celebrate over drinks, toasting to women’s power.