The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

Published: May 4th, 2019 by Soho Crime

Genre: Historical Mystery

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur's royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. The state is now ruled by an agent of the British Raj on behalf of Satapur's two maharanis, the dowager queen and her daughter-in-law.

The royal ladies are in a dispute over the education of the young crown prince, and a lawyer's counsel is required. However, the maharanis live in purdah and do not speak to men. Just one person can help them: Perveen Mistry, Bombay's only female lawyer. Perveen is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young prince's future, but she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace's deadly curse?

My Thoughts:

This is a fun continuation of the Perveen Mistry series. Once again Perveen must head to a place that will only allow women. She's in luck since she's India's only female lawyer. 

This story was set up a bit differently than The Widows of Malabar Hill. In that one we get flashbacks to Perveen before she became a lawyer and those slowly catch up to her in the present. We get a lot of backstory and history and it was presented well. In The Satapur Moonstone, there are no flashbacks. A lot of the history and backstory to the setting come out a bit clunky. We "hear" a lot of Perveen's thoughts that don't seem really relevant to the story but come at as cultural or religious information. Those thoughts and explanations took me out of the story more often than I liked. I feel like the explanations and historical information could've been presented differently.

Perveen gets a romantic interest in Colin. He's British but he's intelligent and kind-hearted, just what she's looking for...well, she's technically unavailable, but let's hope that gets resolved in a future story!

The mystery was interesting. I liked learning more about the small ruling maharaja kingdoms before Indian independence. It's a slow burn but one that is thoroughly rewarding. Massey's series is character and world-driven. The mystery is more a way to talk about India's rich history and customs. She also does not shy away from the unfair treatment of women, children, and the caste society in India. And she has no problem tackling British colonization and the good and the bad that came out of it. It's a fantastic series and am looking forward to the next installation.

*read as part of the Book Challenge by Erin 11.0

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

Published: September 1st, 2015 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Genre: Historical Mystery

Format: Hardcover, 408 pages, own

Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads' Summary:

A novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation’s first female deputy sheriffs.

Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared.  

My Thoughts:

The Kopp sisters live a quiet life until their buggy is hit by an automobile driven by Henry Kaufman, a local factory owner. Things are never the same again after they go after him for charges to repair their buggy. He comes after them with his local gang. Constance, working with the local sheriff, manage to gather the evidence necessary to take him down in the courts. Constance also manages to help a local factory worker Lucy along the way too. 

I loved these sisters; each is different in a very humorous way. I was surprised to learn Constance and her sisters are taken from history as well as the Kaufman case. Stewart pulls in actual articles and headlines to tell their story.

It's a fantastic story that would be fun as fictional but to get a sense of the time and place as actual history was an extra bonus. Times were hard back then to be a woman on your own and to be one as conspicuous and outspoken as Constance was. I look forward to more adventures with the Kopp sisters.

Also, Amy Stewart is a prolific writer of non-fiction so I was surprised to hear about this series. Check out her non-fiction work as well. The Drunken Botanist is a favorite of mine.

*Read for Book Challenge by Erin 11.0

Book Challenge by Erin 11.0 July-October Book Challenge

I saw that a fellow book blogger had done this challenge earlier this year and she loved it and I thought "hey, why not? Summer is here and this will be a great challenge to try for! The challenge begins July 1 and ends October 31st. I added a couple of mystery/thrillers for Halloween time too.

Book Challenge by Erin 11.0. The rules and discussions are all on the Facebook page and the group on Goodreads.

• 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages-- Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

• 10 points: Read a book that starts with “F”-- Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century by Dorothy Roberts

• 10 points: Read a book with one of the following words in the title: rain(s), thunder, lightning, or monsoon-- Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power by Robert Kaplan

• 15 points: Read a book with a picture of a building (i.e. a house, a castle, a school, a hospital, etc.) on the cover-- Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky

• 20 points: Read a book that the published author uses an initial in his/her name--Second Life by S.J. Watson

• 20 points: Read a book with an article of clothing or accessory in the title--The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee

• 25 points: (in honour of our co-admin) – Read a book set in India-- The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey

• 30 points: (selected by Lyndsay L.) – Read a book that has won or been short-listed for the Booker Prize--The Sellout by Paul Beatty

• 30 points: (selected by Deborah D.) – Read a book about a human with superpowers or supernatural powers-- Map of Days by Ransom Riggs

• 35 points: (selected by Lorraine J.) – Read a book that has the same title as another book in a different genre-- Far From the Tree by Robin Benway, also the same title as Andrew Solomon's book.