Historical Mysteries

This is the first (in what I hope will be a very long) series featuring Irish immigrant Molly Murphy, who escapes her village after committing a crime and through one set of circumstances after another ends up on a boat to America impersonating another woman and shepherding her children across the Atlantic to a father they haven't seen in three years. That would do it for many writers, but for Bowen, that's just a precis of the first three or four chapters.

Molly's journey across the pond and her journey through Ellis Island - a not well known one, to me, at least - are fascinating. When a fellow passenger is murdered while Molly and the children are waiting to get off the island (they must be processed by US Officials) it just adds to the stress of the situation.

Believably thrown into the crime, Molly is a determined and intelligent woman, who is set on discovering who the killer is and freeing an accused friend. Along the way she makes friends with a policeman, as well as the father of the children she's brought across.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's such a fun story, and Molly is such a terrific character, as is the framework of New York City circa 1901, that I was sorry to put it down and craved another installment right away. Luckily, there's a new one just out in hardback - Death of Riley. Meanwhile, if you enjoyed this novel as much as I did, you might give Victoria Thompson's fine series a try.