In Like Flynn : A Molly Murphy Series (Molly Murphy) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Rhys Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

Fledgling private investigator Molly Murphy's latest assignment gives her the opportunity to escape the typhoid epidemic sweeping across New York City in the summer of 1902 for the lush Hudson River Valley. And it comes from an unlikely source-Captain Daniel Sullivan, a New York City police detective and erstwhile beau of Molly's. She has vowed to keep him at arm's length until he can rid himself of his socialite fiancée, but she can't pass up the chance to take advantage of his offer of a real detective job.

Daniel hires Molly to go undercover inside the country household of Senator Barney Flynn, in Peekskill, New York. Flynn's wife, Theresa, has become the latest devotee of a pair of spiritualists known as the Sorensen Sisters. The frail Theresa is desperate to use the sisters' alleged abilities to hold a séance to contact her infant son, who was kidnapped five years ago and never found; the accused kidnapper was killed before he could tell police where the boy was being held. But the police are sure the women are frauds.

When Molly allows herself to be distracted from the Sorensen Sisters and the members of the Flynn household by the unsolved kidnapping, it is a race against time to find out what's really going on before it's too late.

In Like Flynn is the latest captivating installment in a series which has garnered an impressive array of awards and nominations in just three books: Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy mysteries have won the Agatha Award, the Anthony Award, the Bruce Alexander Historical Award, and the Herodotus Award, and have been shortlisted for the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Bowen's absorbing, well-plotted fourth entry in this Agatha Award–winning historical series (after 2003's For the Love of Mike), Molly Murphy's former beau, policeman Daniel Sullivan, arranges for Molly to leave New York City (and the rapidly spreading typhoid epidemic of 1902). The police are interested in the Sorensons, a pair of sisters working as spiritualists, whom they want to expose as fakes. Molly joins the upstate household of Sen. Barney Flynn, posing as one of his numerous cousins recently arrived from Ireland. Flynn's wife, Theresa, has invited the Sorensons to the Flynns' Hudson River estate because she wants to make contact with her missing son, presumed dead after disappearing in a kidnapping attempt several years before. Molly also plans to investigate what happened to the Flynns' son at the behest of the child's nurse, who was implicated in the crime but still proclaims her innocence. Determined to get at the truth, the redoubtable Molly has to confront a dark part of her own past before this complex tale comes to a bittersweet and heartfelt conclusion.
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 escapes the typhoid epidemic in New York City in 1902 by going undercover as a cousin of Senator Barney Flynn in his house above the Hudson River. Flynn's wife still mourns the kidnapping and death of their son, and she has turned to spiritualists for solace. Molly, while investigating the spiritualist sisters, also tries to untangle the web around the kidnapping. Told in the first person, Molly's adventures strain credulity a bit this time: more than one attempted rape, a poisoning where she forgives and dismisses the guilty party, and the reappearance of an evil figure from her past whom she thought was long dead. Even the Black Hand and the orphan trains play roles. Meanwhile, Molly toys with the affections of an Irish police officer and a Jewish anarchist and is toyed with in return. Too much, to be sure, but series fans will want to see what happens next. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• ISBN-10: 031232815X
• ASIN: B000GX57XG
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,174,257 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

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kidnapping and Spiritualists, April 2, 2005

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 Like Flynn: A Molly Murphy Mystery (Hardcover)

When Daniel Sullivan says he has an assignment for her, Molly can hardly believe it. She's to go undercover to Senator Flynn's estate on the Hudson River. Posing as his cousin recently arrived from Ireland, she's to investigate the two spiritualists that the Senator's wife Theresa has hired to help her contact their son, who was killed in a kidnapping gone bad five years ago. When a woman falsely accused by reputation in the crime asks Molly to look into that, too, Molly agrees. But has she really learned enough about being an investigator to solve the two cases?

I made a discovery when I started this book. I truly love Molly and her friends. I hadn't realized how much I'd come to love them before this. Having said that, most of the action takes place outside of New York, so we really get Molly interacting with an entire new set of characters. The plot to this book in multi-layered, with two mysteries and several other sub-plots weaving nicely throughout. I found I had a hard time putting it down. I was disappointed that a couple key plot points on the mysteries seemed to happen by coincidence, but on the whole, it wasn't a major problem.

Ms. Bowen has written yet another engaging mystery that will please her fans. And if you haven't discovered her wonderful books yet, but all means pick one up. Either series will entertain and bring you back for more.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick enjoyable historical mystery, April 20, 2005

By 

Collene Irvin "bibliobetty" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Like Flynn: A Molly Murphy Mystery (Hardcover)

I've enjoyed the Molly Murphy series from the very first book - Murphy's Law.
In this third visit with mischevious Molly, she gets to go undercover to investigate the shaky Sorenson sisters and their seances.
The story moves from turn of the century New York City to the more peaceful atmosphere of upper state New York.
Molly however doesn't find alot of peace and ever true to her Irish spunk & curiosity becomes involved with crimes of a more serious nature: kidnapping and murder.
Molly Murphy is not some plastic perfect PI. She ofter makes mistakes, but she learns from them. Even as the story wraps up we find Molly making a choice that only her next tale may reveal the consequences. Yet my money, as always, is with Molly.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshingly old-fashioned mystery, April 27, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Like Flynn: A Molly Murphy Mystery (Hardcover)

IN LIKE FLYNN is the fourth novel in the Molly Murphy mystery series written by Rhys Bowen. Molly is the gritty young woman who could be the poster girl for women's rights a decade later than her time. She's a fiery red-haired colleen from Ireland who lives in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. She practices the trade of private investigation as her livelihood. But her gender gets in the way much of the time. A former boyfriend, Captain Daniel Sullivan of the New York City Police Department, gives her a job that takes her out of the city. When she spends time in the Hudson River Valley at the private estate of a U.S. Senator, Barney Flynn, she escapes the ravages of a typhoid fever epidemic in the city.

Her job is to watch two spinster sisters at their trade. They assist persons in grief by contacting the dead through a séance. Daniel authorizes Molly to investigate the two for a reason to prosecute. He thinks they are bogus and play on the tragedies of their victims. The Senator's wife, Theresa, mourns her son who was kidnapped from the estate five years before. Her second child, Eileen, reminds her more of her loss. Theresa remains inconsolable, grasping at remote possibilities to reunite with her dead child.

Molly is shown as spunky, bright, energetic and living on the verge of propriety for a young woman of her day. However, she exhibits a vulnerability to feminine emotion that makes her real. She's moved on romantically but leans on her former lover for support. She's masquerading as a distant cousin from Ireland who visits the Flynns. But shadows from her past life thwart her in the form of a man she's been accused of killing back in her homeland.

Life at the turn of the century is a pallet drawn well in IN LIKE FLYNN. Bowen writes her characters well, especially the female side. Her men are not as easy to like, with the exception of the police detective. The butler, gardener, male secretary, and even the Senator are more predictable characters then their female counterparts. The Senator is a wanderer, chasing all young skirts on the property. At the same time he indulges his wife's whims and dominates her with petty minutia.

The mystery has twists and turns that lead to a pleasing outcome, though not altogether fulfilling. IN LIKE FLYNN isn't a story that yearns for a sequel, but it does leave the details of Molly's future open-ended. Thus, we'll look for the next Molly Murphy mystery at the bookstores.

A majority of modern mysteries deal with murder, mayhem and today's technologies. IN LIKE FLYNN is a pleasant change in the genre, relying on old-fashioned problem solving, without benefit of cell phones, computers and speeding police chases. Bowen's style is deserving of the awards she has received for her suspense-filled stories.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad