There are minefields within this novel through which both the characters and author must weave. For author Sujata Massey, her minefield is accurately conjuring the cultural mores of the early 1920s with the British Raj in Western India. The characters must navigate through the corridors of royal protocols, caste privileges and prohibitions, religious differences – and the vast cultural gulf between the local population and the colonial British.

Perveen Mistry is a lawyer sent to Satapur to determine the educational path of the future maharaja. The ruling family is beset with palace intrigues. The education of the future maharaja is subsumed in the mystery of the death of his brother and the possible poisoning of food served in the palace.

Perveen’s name might seem a too-obvious nod to the ‘mystery’ in which she finds herself, but it is an actual Gujarati name derived from a person’s occupation. Defining her religion as Zoroastrian is less obvious, but magnificently clever, as one of its guiding principles is the battle between good and evil: perfect for solving crimes. Perveen is helped by an anachronistically forward-thinking Englishman, Colin Sandringham. The is a subplot of the awkwardness of their burgeoning friendship.

The novel concerns itself primarily with the mystery, but it is also a wonderful study of colonial, gender and class politics. The writing is sharp, the descriptions clear and evocative. The pace is always brisk but quickens significantly towards the denouement. This may be why a couple of annoying loose threads, central to the intrigue, are left unknotted at the end. This is, however, a small quibble and does not spoil this excellent second novel in the ‘Perveen Mistry’ series.

Reviewed by Bob Moore