Soho
Published March 3, 2026
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
In 1922 Perveen Mistry, India’s first woman lawyer, is hired along with her father to represent an early film star who is being sued by a studio she left for breach of contract. Rochana is a glamorous and powerful figure, but Perveen worries she is being exploited by her husband, who is secretly having financial difficulties funding his new studio. But his troubles grow worse when, the morning after a raucous party celebrating the screening of a new film, one of the guests is found dead. The murder victim was not only stalking Rochana, he was in the British military, responsible for censoring the film that was about to go into theatres.
A relatively simple case of contract law has become something much more complex: Perveen has to investigate the crime in order to protect her clients. But this involves digging into the culture of early Bollywood, which like its Hollywood counterpart during the silent film era, is beset by scandal and taboo-breaking behavior behind the screen. It doesn’t help that Perveen’s best friend, Alice Hobson-Jones is keeping secrets, just like the star who has pulled them into her circles. Then, without warning, Rochana vanishes.
This series, debuting in 2018 with The Widows of Malabar Hill, has mined a rich vein of Indian history, delving into the differences among religious traditions and castes at a time when the colonial empire is facing a growing independence movement. This entry, while depicting the early days of silent film in a country that continues to have a thriving cinema, seems somehow a bit less focused than previous books. The pacing is slow, Perveen’s ground-breaking role as a professional woman is as important to the plot as it has been in the previous books, there seems less at stake with the murder of a minor official whom nobody likes by someone among a group of suspects we don’t especially care about. Though the film context is interesting, this might not be the best place to discover this excellent series. But readers who haven’t become acquainted with Perveen Mistry would do themselves a favor by starting at the beginning.