For the Love of Mike (Molly Murphy Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Rhys Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Molly Murphy Mysteries | Publication Date: December 9, 2003

Molly Murphy is starting to think the cards are stacked against her. She's determined to be a private detective, but hampering her investigations is the fact that she's finding many places in turn-of-the-century New York City where women are not welcome, something that's as frustrating to her fiery Irish pride as it is to her rapidly emptying pocketbook.

Then two business opportunities pop up simultaneously. An aristocratic family in Dublin fears their daughter has fled to the New World with her unsavory boyfriend, and they hire Molly to track the two down and send the young woman back home. Before she has time to consider her good luck, she's asked to go undercover as a piece worker in the garment business and investigate a potential case of industrial espionage. Now if she can only solve both cases without the help of Daniel Sullivan, the police captain who claims he loves her but who is engaged to someone else...

Full of the rich detail of New York's teeming immigrant community and the colorful historical personalities of the age, For the Love of Mike is the triumphant third installment in Rhys Bowen's Agatha Award-winning series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Bowen's engaging third Molly Murphy historical (after 2002's Death of Riley), Molly finds it's not easy to be a female detective with a brogue as thick as ham in 1901 New York. Late one night, two brutish cops haul her off to the slammer because they think she's a prostitute; they don't believe her claim that she was staking out the house across the street. She makes things worse on herself by refusing to mention her friendship with police captain Daniel Sullivan, who could have her released in a jiffy. Instead, she spends a different sort of night in a cell full of whores. Having taken over the detective agency of her recently deceased mentor, Paddy Riley, Molly pursues a couple of cases that form the guts of the story. In one instance, she goes undercover in a sweatshop to ferret out possible industrial espionage; in the other, she looks for an English gentleman's runaway daughter, who is, in turn, searching for her husband. All the threads come neatly together in a fire at a dress-making shop. The question left dangling is a romantic one: will Molly settle for a good friendship with labor leader Jacob Singer, or will she fall back into the arms of her police captain? Only Bowen's next Molly Murphy mystery will tell.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Molly is a smart, feisty, independent heroine...[an] appealing series."-Booklist

Engaging." -Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (December 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312313004
• ISBN-13: 978-0312313005
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,490 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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Cases and Plenty of Danger, November 24, 2003

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: For the Love of Mike (Molly Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Molly is bravely trying to continue on with Riley's detective agency. But she finds divorce cases to be completely distasteful. Just as she's resolved to put them behind her, she gets an assignment to go undercover in the sweatshops to find out who is stealing designs from one man and selling them to his competitor. Then she is asked to find a young woman who ran away to America with her boyfriend. Molly is thrilled since finding missing relatives is exactly what she wanted to do all along. Now she just has to figure out how to balance the two since working in the sweatshops means working all day and the streets of 1901 New York City certainly aren't safe for a woman alone at night.

As if her life already weren't complicated enough, she still feels a responsibility to the O'Connors for her opportunity to come to America in the first place. They are once again living with their cousins, and Shamey is joining a gang. She feels she needs to figure out a way to get them into a better environment. Her already complicated love life gets another wrinkle. And she can't help but sympathize with the girls she's working with in the garment factories. Even though she needs to keep quiet, she feels she must do something to help make their lives better. With a little bit of Irish luck, she just might be able to pull it all off and come out alive on the other end.

Obviously, this is not your traditional mystery novel. As much time is spent on life in 1901 as on the cases themselves. But, as a result, Molly's world comes vividly to life. And there is so much going on you can't put the book down. Heck, I read it in little over a day myself. The pace never slackens, and there are quite a few tense scenes. Molly has really grown on me as a character, and I loved seeing her friends and adopted family again. This book does talk about the ending of the last book, so it's best to read the series in order.

If you're looking for a murder and five suspects, look elsewhere. If you want a historical mystery that will transport you to another time and place while entertaining you, this is the book for you.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Woman Ahead of Her Time, January 1, 2004

By 

Elaine Flinn "MysteryMama" (Salinas, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: For the Love of Mike (Molly Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I loved DEATH OF RILEY and FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE firmly establishes Molly Murphy as a woman to be reckoned with! Dauntless in her pursuit of criminals, Molly never loses her warmth or compassion. She is a character of many dimensions and a woman who will not turn away from the inequities of her times. This is a wonderful series filled with exhaustive research that portrays a window of New York in the early years of the 20th century so vivid, you can hear the rustle of long skirts and the snap of a parasol.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars tremendous historical mystery, November 26, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For the Love of Mike (Molly Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In 1901 private detective Molly Murphy decides to remain in New York City in spite of the recent death of her boss, Paddy Riley (see DEATH OF RILEY). Her plan is to continue Riley's detective agency though she lacks experience, having never flown solo.

Her first case without her mentor involves someone who is stealing the designs sketches of lower Manhattan's Mostel and Klein garment factory. Even worse, their biggest competitor Lowenstein is getting their garbs into the stores first. Molly goes undercover learning first hand how intense a sewing job can be in a sweatshop. While still trying to discover the thief she begins a second case. Her client Major Favisham sent her a letter from Ireland to find his daughter Katherine who sailed to New York with a bum Michael Kelly. Unbelievable at least to Molly, her two cases begin connecting even as the danger mounts to her.

Although this is in some ways darker than the previous two novels, this is a tremendous historical mystery. The star is a gritty New York at the turn of the previous century. The story line is cleverly designed so that the two subplots merge into a cohesive tale. The additions of a police officer romantic interest and Molly's just two steps above amateur status make for a delightful experience.

Harriet Klausner