Reviews

This is my favourite Perveen Mistry novel since The Widows of Malabar Hill. While The Satapur Moonstone was poorly edited and derivative, and The Bombay Prince felt churned out, the only real problem I found in The Mistress of Bhatia House was that the abundant cast of characters (particularly the several identical white men) became a little confusing without a dramatis personae.

The multiple mysteries and narratives are well-nested and timely without bludgeoning the reader with parallels about reproductive justice. There are a lot of stories here: the main plot of Sunanda's trumped-up abortion charges to domestic drama in the Mistry household and the quest to get the women's hospital off the ground, and they're all well-balanced. It's never as if Massey spends too much or too little time on one plotline before switching to another. We spend just enough time with one plot to wonder how the others are faring without feeling bored.

As the fourth book in the series, I don't have much to say beyond my appreciation for Massey's handling of historical feminism. She never relies on the tired (and false) mantra that being a woman in the past meant 24/7 suffering. Massey acknowledges the difficulties women faced in 1920s India by showing how women can work together to try and eliminate these barriers. It's never tragedy porn or saccharine; each story centres around women and empathizes deeply with them.

The only real complaint I have is that there's a glaring editing error when the characters of Madeline Stowe and Serena Prescott are combined into Madeline Prescott. Since the action attached to this name is running towards her husband, and both women's husbands are present, it's almost impossible to figure out who it was supposed to be. For a horrifying moment, I thought there was going to be an Evil Trans Woman reveal because a woman's remarkably large hands and feet were commented on a few times; thankfully, that was not the case.

Book 5 wishes: another trip outside Bombay, Perveen and Colin face obstacles in their relationship besides the obvious, Alice gets a girlfriend.