Sujata Massey speaks about ‘The Bombay Prince’: ‘Good characters are like chess pieces’

The author of the Perveen Mistry mysteries says, some characters you throw into the game right away, and others are protected in the back row, reserved for important situations yet to come

The Prince of Wales’, later Edward VIII, four-month tour of India in 1921 is fraught with tension. There is unrest and Perveen Mistry is in the thick of things. In her third outing,The Bombay Prince, (Penguin Random House) Sujatha Massey’s feisty heroine, Perveen Mistry, the only woman lawyer in Bombay, has a lot on her plate from riots to the death of an 18-year-old student, Freny Cuttingmaster, during the royal visit.

The title, Massey says comes out of a sarcastic comment made by Perveen, who does not welcome the prince’s tour of India. “At the time he was Britain’s crown prince and she with many Bombay citizens was advocating for independence. On the morning of his arrival, Perveen says to Mustafa, who works in the law firm, that Edward is not the prince of Bombay. However, Bombay’s high society does treat Prince Edward with extreme reverence; hence the title.”