In Dublin's Fair City (Molly Murphy Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Rhys Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008 | Series: Molly Murphy Mysteries

When New York theatre impresario Tommy Burke asks Molly to help him take care of some family business back in Ireland, Molly is happy to oblige. Tempted by the prospect of going home for the first time in years (and putting her fledging detective agency on firm financial ground), Molly throws caution to the wind and climbs aboard the White Start Liner Majestic with hopes of sneaking on and off the isle without raising a peep. Until one passenger, who happens to be a famous Broadway actress goes missing—and another turns up dead. So much for smooth sailing….

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1903, Bowen's sixth brisk Molly Murphy historical (after 2006's Oh Danny Boy) takes the Irish immigrant to New York City back to the Emerald Isle for an assignment to find a theater impresario's long-lost sister, left behind when his family fled the potato famine 50 years earlier. Even though Molly had left Ireland under a cloud of suspicion herself, she bids a temporary farewell to her beau, New York police captain Daniel Sullivan. The voyage begins auspiciously when a famous actress offers Molly her first class stateroom, but Molly's discovery of a corpse in her sumptuous bed is only the beginning of a complicated, dangerous journey. In Dublin, she becomes embroiled in the Irish struggle for freedom and finds herself a target for murder. With a riveting plot capped off by a dramatic conclusion, Bowen captures the passion and struggles of the Irish people at the turn of the 20th century. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Molly Murphy, Bowen's plucky early-twentieth-century private investigator, sails back home to Ireland to find a woman who is in line for a large inheritance. But the investigatory work starts earlier than she expects when, onboard ship, a young woman is murdered and another woman, an actress, disappears. The plot thickens upon docking in Ireland, when Molly discovers her own brother trying to collect the missing actress' luggage, which contains a substantial supply of firearms. Further thickening ensues as Molly learns that someone else is trying to find the missing woman and will do whatever it takes to make sure Molly is out of the picture. A plot that feels more convoluted than it needs to be detracts slightly from the series' main strength: hanging out with the irrepressibly charming Molly. But this remains one of the most accessible and comfortably entertaining of all historical mystery series. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; First Edition edition (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312997027
• ISBN-13: 978-0312997021
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rhys Bowen's books have been nominated for every major mystery award and she has won thirteen of them to date. She currently writes two historical mystery series, each very different in tone. The Molly Murphy mysteries feature an Irish immigrant woman in turn-of-the-century New York City. These books are multi-layered, complex stories with a strong sense of time and place and have won many awards including Agatha and Anthony. There are 10 book so far in this series plus the free Kindle story, The Amersham Rubies--a great way to introduce new readers to Molly's spunky personality.

Then there is Lady Georgie, Rhys's latest,and very popular, heroine. She's 34th in line to the throne of England, but she's flat broke and struggling to survive in the Great Depression. These books are lighter and funnier than Molly's adventures. They poke gentle fun at the British class system--about which Rhys knonws a lot, having married into an upper class family rather like Georgie's, with cousins with silly nicknames,family ghosts and stately homes. The fifth book, Naughty in Nice, is in stores now, and watch out for a big Christmas book in time for the 2012 holidays.
This year the series received the Readers Hoice Award for favorite mystery series.

Rhys was born in Bath, England and spent a lot of time growing up in Wales with her Welsh relatives. Those childhood experiences colored her first mystery series, about Constable Evans in the mountains of Snowdonia. 10 books including the Edgar nominee Evan's Gate. She has lived in Austria, Germany and Australia, but has called California her home for many years. She now escapes to a condo in Arizona during those cold California winters. When she's not writing she loves to travel, sing, hike and play the Celtic harp.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Molly goes home and grows up, April 15, 2007

By 

Christina Lockstein "Christy's Book Blog" (Oconto Falls, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In Dublin's Fair City (Molly Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In Dublin's Fair City by Rhys Bowen is the most recent book in the Molly Murphy mystery series. As often happens within a long-running series, Bowen removes Molly from her familiar environs to create new crises and advance character development. This works very well with Molly Murphy who returns home to Ireland to investigate a long-lost sister of a wealthy Irish-American theater producer. Molly needs the opportunity to get out of New York for awhile and reevaluate her feelings for her off-and-on paramour Daniel Sullivan. So she jumps at the opportunity to return to her homeland, and instead finds herself in the middle of a missing actress, a murdered maid, and the Irish movement for independence. Bowen juggles the multiple stories remarkably well and manages to ties them all together in an almost completely believable way. I love Molly's foibles and her refusal to be treated as second class. She realizes that she's not much of a detective but never gives up. She's one of the most realistic, truly human characters in cozy mysteries today. This was a fantastic read, one of those books that's hard to put down, but when I was done and preparing the review a few holes in the plausibility started showing. So it's one of those books to read and enjoy, and don't spend a lot of time thinking about later. But don't miss it, Molly Murphy (and Rhys Bowen) are truly a joy to read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Molly Returns to Ireland, March 21, 2007

By 

Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Dublin's Fair City (Molly Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

When Molly ran away from Ireland with a price on her head, she figured she could never go back. But now she's been offered just that chance. Theatrical producer Tommy Burke wants to hire Molly to return to Ireland and find his long lost sister, left behind 50 years ago when the family fled the potato famine. Since Daniel is driving her crazy and she needs the money, she decides to risk it. Surely she can slip in and out again without being noticed.

Molly really should have known that would never work. When she boards the ship, she gets an offer to switch places with famous actress Oona Sheehan. She can hardly turn down extra cash and a chance to travel first class. But then she finds a body and Oona disappears before they can switch back. Now she's the chief suspect in the murder. Can she clear her name and find the missing woman without being connect to the previous warrant for her arrest?

I've really come to care for Molly and look forward to each new entry in the series, but this one was a disappointment. Molly is her normal entertaining self, and I didn't miss her New York friends as much as I thought I would.

The trouble came with the plot. It starts way too slowly and then gets lost in the historic story going on around Molly. The ending, while logical, is abrupt and not satisfying.

What saves the book is the historical saga. I love a novel that can bring another place and time to life, and this book does. The mystery is really just an excuse to get Molly into the historical plot, and anyone who cares for her will want to see how that sub-plot ends.

As a mystery, I give this book 3 stars, but as a historical novel, I give it 5. If you aren't already familiar with Molly, start with the earlier books before picking this one up.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go, Rhys!!!, December 14, 2007

By 

Elizabeth Slater (North Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: In Dublin's Fair City (Molly Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

We return to New York City in the early 1900s to find Molly Murphy, private investigator, struggling with internal and external issues. She and her lover Daniel are on edge, awaiting Daniel's trial and/or exoneration from multiple crimes, which is causing them to review their feelings for one another and their relationship. Molly is also working to keep her private investigative agency alive, but cases are few and far between. When Molly's friend Ryan introduces her to self-made New York theater mogul Tommy Burke, she decides that Tommy's case is just the thing for her. She needs the money, and she also could use the break from her current situation - the case is in Ireland.


We follow the 6th installment of Molly's life in New York straight back to Ireland, the land she fled as a wanted criminal two years prior, after almost killing a man who attacked her. Molly decides that she is safe enough to return with a common name and to a different area of Ireland unannounced - until her plan flies out the porthole. Upon boarding the ship, she is approached by famous actress, Oona Sheehan, with a strange request - to replace Oona on the ship so that Oona may have a respite from her own fame. Molly agrees, thinking it not much of a hardship to stay in a first class cabin for a week. However, after 6 days at sea, Molly decides to attend the costume party anonymously only to return to the cabin to find her maid dead - in the other costume she'd tried on.

Molly's ruse as Oona is exposed, but she remains a suspect even as she lands on her home soil to pursue her own case. She is nostalgic, but aware of her status change as she tries to move amongst the people she used to live with. As she follows the leads for Tommy's case, she somehow manages to become entwined with many (now) well-known names and with the Irish Republican movement, unknowingly making herself a mark for murder.

Bowen's work doesn't disappoint, and she is a master storyteller who is able to keep the reader guessing. However, I highly suggest reading her previous Molly novels in order to catch all the back history and nuances that are inherent in Molly's return to Ireland, not to mention her history with Daniel Sullivan.

Thank you, Rhys, for another wonderful mystery featuring America's favorite immigrant investigator!