In a Gilded Cage

Molly Murphy has agreed to participate in a suffragette march on Easter in 1918. As a result, she meets some Vassar graduates and spends a night in jail. Police Captain Daniel Sullivan isn’t happy to learn his betrothed has gotten into this spot.

After learning Molly is an investigator, tow of her Vassar acquaintances ask for Molly’s help. One suspects her husband is cheating on her and the other wants to know the real story of her parents.

Emily Boswell had been raised by her Aunt Lydia and Uncle Horace Lynch. Her parents were missionaries in China and had died during a cholera epidemic when Emily was still a baby. Her aunt died when Emily was five, so it was primarily the uncle who raised her. He was a skinflint of a guardian. He show more did obey the wishes of her parents and sent her to Vassar, but as soon as she finished she was to move out on her own. When she asked for more details on her parents, the uncle refused to talk about them. This has made Emily believe that he was covering up something important.

Fanny Poindexter feels that her husband must have a mistress. If so, she plans to divorce him. Her family has the money, so there is no fear of her being out in the cold. Molly is to get the evidence for the divorce.

Meanwhile, Emily’s beau works at the drugstore where Emily is a clerk. He is apprenticing with the druggist. On his own, he has created a face cream that a number of the Vassar girls swear by. His goal is to have his own cosmetic company.

When one of the Vassar girls unexpectedly dies it is thought to be a deadly influenza that is going around. When another girls turns up ill and soon dies of the same symptoms, Molly beings to wonder and looks back on an earlier death of a clerk that worked at the druggist’— something men find unacceptable. The other ladies find themselves in gilded cages. They may have all the luxuries bet they also have all the restrictions.

Molly is a bold character and she wonders if a married life will work. Her work is important to her and who she is. show less

Another turn 'round old New York with Molly Murphy in this eighth entry in the series finds the intrepid immigrant PI looking into a case involving the suspicious death of a young lady involved in a women's suffrage march during the Easter Parade. A tragic death, the official story reads, from a sudden bout of influenza--not too uncommon in those days, especially not during an epidemic of it striking the city. But then more members of the womens' circle soon fall victim, and Miss Murphy smells a rat...

Of course, murder and mayhem aren't the only troubles on her plate. Having patched things up with her on-again off-again beau, Daniel Sullivan, who's been reinstated to his former status as Captain in the NYPD, the two settle into a less show more sharp relationship. The question of "Will they or won't they?" has apparently been resolved, but tension still exists as the happy couple experience their share of conflict. A grand romance still doesn't mean that two people can't clash over various aspects of their two lives coming together, and Molly and Daniel continue to stubbornly disagree over aspects of their mutual future. It's a nice touch to see that the removal of their former external romantic obstacles doesn't mean settling into a cloyingly perfect state of things between them.

I do like the aspect that since they met in "Murphy's Law", the first book of the series, Molly typically doesn't happen to be involved in Daniel's police cases like we see with many couples in mysteries, conveniently forcing the two of them to interact and work together. They both maintain separate investigations and careers, but particularly now in "In a Gilded Cage", the two seem to discover some common ground in their mutual solving of cases, which may raise the possibility of lending ideas and fresh perspective to each other in the future.

Daniel himself has held some definite interest in the last few books. Initially a cocky, glib young detective--a bit of a raffish Gilded Age bad boy--recent losses and experiences have taken their toll, though he hasn't entirely turned his ways. Although we unfortunately don't get his point of view, glimpses of a young man taking stock of his life, and perhaps settling into a greater maturity, are there. As he rather seriously tells Molly in this volume, after all the bad times they've been through recently, he wants to look forward to a life with her. His concern for her frequent daredevil antics still retains some of the chauvinistic condescension native to the men of the era that we've seen previously when the two have discussed the issue, but perhaps due to his own recent experiences, it also seems to ring with a note of genuine concern that after losing so much, he might lose the person he loves most. The issue remains unresolved at the end, but I'm interested to see what happens, and whether or not with a new depth of honesty developing between them, Molly admits the truth about certain events from the period of Daniel's professional disgrace that she's been concealing from him.

Molly is an engaging character in that despite her amateur status and lack of credentials, she persists in forging her own path, carving out her own little piece of the American dream. She's got a sharp mind and a lot of common sense, but even that doesn't guarantee success when, as a young woman loitering around the streets on a stakeout during an investigation, she's likely to be mistaken for a prostitute and hauled off to jail! And as a recent immigrant and a non-professional, we see a New York of bygone days, and the crimes and ways of the era in fresh perspective right along with her, the sights and sounds and people new to both Molly and the reader.

The story is extremely rich in history, weaving several threads of issues and events contemporary to the times into the tale. Missionaries and the Boxer Rebellion feature in one of Molly's cases, for example. But a large aspect is the largely unregulated medicine and remedy industry of the times (it would still be several years before Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" nauseated the public enough to inspire regulatory measures in the food and drug industry via formation of the FDA). Lead, arsenic, and other lethal compounds were regularly featured as ingredients in "cures" of the era, and laudanum was a way of life for many. And even more so than with previous entries in the series, the role of women approaching a crossroads in history and forging new roles in the world is explored and integrated nicely into the plot, having a keen resonance with Molly now contemplating the paths she might take in her own future. The solution to the mystery was satisfying, and the details of it were intriguing and well-drawn. As ever, I genuinely enjoyed taking another trip to the Gilded Age with Molly. show less

I didn't realise there was a series of books starring Molly Murphy and I don't think I was disadvantaged reading "In a Gilded Cage" first. It was a fun read and Molly was delightful. I liked that she was an independent, forward-thinking woman who ran her own detective agency despite society's views on women.

On the other hand, I wasn't keen on Daniel, Molly's boyfriend. I didn't feel any chemistry between them and I felt that he was arrogant and belittled Molly and her job because of her gender. In my opinion, Molly was too good for him.

Overall, "In a Gilded Cage" was a light, entertaining read with twists and turns along the way and a cold-blooded killer. I will be looking for more novels in this series.

Molly takes part in the N.Y.C. Easter Parade with a group of Suffragists who are all Vassar graduates.

Emily Boswell hires Molly because she wants to know the truth behind the death of her parents & the Uncle who stole her inheritance...

Then Emily's roommate, Fanny, hires Molly to find out about a philandering husband.....she mysteriously dies as does another friend, Dorcas. Influenza? So say the men in attendance.

Too much of a coincidence? Molly thinks so and begins to investigate further.....

Here's the peever: Molly's "intended" Captain Daniel Sullivan Knows how good of a detective Molly is as well as how many times she has helped him with his investigations. When she asks his help (as she suspects poison) he brushes her off. Even show more when she tells him she was nearly run over in a deliberate action, he poo-poos her...... acting like the selfish, bossy-butt male chauvinist pig he is. (Ok, I can't stand him and I'm comparing him to another similar series).

So aside for him, it's a pretty good story...and I'm hoping she'll wise up and dump him rather than marry him. show less

Yet another solid entry to the Molly Murphy series. It is visibly not as good as the previous one. I'm beginning to wonder if any book in this series will get the elusive 5 stars that I reserve for outstanding books. The trouble with this book's story is that there are no real twists but rather well meaning stabs at misdirection. Without giving much away, I'll mention the reasons for putting Molly's life in danger, the breaking into her house, the name and purpose of a particular poison...

The skimming over of details in the last third of the book - as if the author was getting impatient and wanted to finish before the deadline - is the freshest calling card of this mystery. More often it's the reverse that's true, generally speaking. show more The Molly Murphy mysteries haven't set my world alight but I've never been tempted to ditch one single book. Why throw the baby with the bath water?

Sometimes this book made me think somewhat about different opportunities regarding gender and context. There has been (perhaps one time too many) a lot of references to the women's suffrage movement in In A Gilded Cage. Even I get the purpose of naming landscapes and landmarks, newly minted cars that have to be cranked by sturdy hand, new fads, dreams of a better future. I understand that these tales are taking place in the 1910's. Could it be possible that the timeline will make Moll Murphy cross into the 50's? Molly would be about seventy then. It is doable. She would be in a different world. Maybe Elena and Augusta, Sid and Gus for short, and Molly's beloved (now betrothed) will have departed the world. If Richard Nixon could have lived to see the nineties in our real world, then Molly and all her friends may well tarry long enough to see even the 1960's in the fictional world. I dearly wish for that. show less

Molly Murphy, Irish émigré to New York City, has her own detective agency, and definitely doesn’t want to be any man’s servant. Given that this is 1903, this may be a problem. But she gets enough jobs to survive, and her ‘young man’, Daniel Sullivan, who is a NYPD detective, is mostly understanding of this.

When her neighbors- the lesbian couple Sid and Gus- introduce her to some fellow Vassar alums, she gets a couple of new cases. One woman, an orphan, wants to find the truth about her birth; another wants to know if her husband is cheating on her. Molly soon finds herself in a tangle of sudden deaths and assaults on her own life. Are the deaths murder or natural? Is the murderer trying to kill Molly to keep her from the show more truth? Who stands to gain the most from these deaths?

The novel is an interesting historical mystery that doesn’t bend the mind set of the day too much. The Vassarettes are marching for the vote, so it’s not inconceivable that they would hire a female detective. Molly’s boyfriend still expects (or at least hopes) that she’ll cook dinner for him and obey him when her own safety is involved- things that even today’s men do. I enjoyed the details of the food, clothing, the medicine (one of Molly’s clients works at a pharmacy), the cosmetics and rooms- Bowen has done her research well and obviously loves this era. A fun, intriguing read. show less

This was a pretty good book. I had trouble keeping track of all the women who died, but that's just me. I'm so glad Molly got engaged and also told Daniel they wouldn't go to far again until after they're married.