Freny’s father, Firdosh, hires the Mistry law firm to ensure that Freny’s autopsy and burial are handled in a respectful manner.

Perveen’s friendship with Woodburn math teacher Alice Hobson-Jones keeps her apprised of new developments, which first emphasize the political situation and Perveen’s relationship with her lawyer father, Jamshedji, brother Rustom, and Indian society generally, and only later coalesce into a whodunit. Once the situation is calmed, Freny’s corpse is discovered in the school's garden. Indeed, violence ensues at the prince’s procession. Perveen advises the girl to feign illness, a weak solution she regrets almost immediately.

Indians are in the midst of a fight for independence, and Woodburn students are expected to attend a parade and support the prince, which many of them don't want to do. But Bombay is erupting: as armed British secret service march the streets, rioters attack anyone with perceived British connections and desperate shopkeepers destroy their own wares so they will not be targets of racial violence.In 1921, the arrival of the Prince of Wales triggers riots in the streets of Bombay, providing cover for a discreet killing.įreny Cuttingmaster consults fledgling solicitor Perveen Mistry, the only female lawyer in Bombay, on behalf of the Woodburn College Student Union about the legality of skipping classes on the day Edward, the Prince of Wales, will be visiting Bombay. When Freny’s death is ruled a murder, Perveen knows she can’t rest until she sees justice done. Feeling guilty for failing to have helped Freny in life, Perveen steps forward to assist Freny’s family in the fraught dealings of the coroner’s inquest. But she’s horrified by the death of Freny Cuttingmaster, an 18-year-old female Parsi student, who falls from a second-floor gallery just as the prince’s grand procession is passing by her college.įreny had come for a legal consultation just days before her death, and what she confided makes Perveen suspicious that her death was not an accident.

The Indian subcontinent is chafing under British rule, and Bombay solicitor Perveen Mistry isn’t surprised when local unrest over the royal arrival spirals into riots. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales and future ruler of India, is arriving in Bombay to begin a four-month tour. Sujata Massey is back with this third installment to the Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning series set in 1920s Bombay. India’s only female lawyer, Perveen Mistry, is compelled to bring justice to the family of a murdered female Parsi student just as Bombay’s streets erupt in riots to protest British colonial rule.

The bombay prince by sujata massey