Death of Riley

I have been a fan of Rhys Bowen since I discovered her Royal Spyness series. I decided to start the Molly Murphy series but book one wasn't available as an ebook (and of course it was late at night) so, what the hell, I ordered book 2 to start. In 1900,Molly Murphy leaves Ireland in book 1 to bring the two children of a dying woman to her husband who has gone ahead to New York City to look for work.

Now in book 2, Molly is looking for work herself but really wants to be a private investigator. Upon arrival in the States, she was befriended by Captain Daniel Sullivan, who seems interested in her romantically, but she discovers he has a wealthy fiance. While acting as a companion to an elderly rich woman, Molly spots a man loitering about show more the building. She discovers that he is PI Paddy Riley. She begs him to teach her how to be an investigator but the most he will let her do is work in his office.

But then Paddy is murdered. The corrupt New York cops just assume it was a gang-related murder and don't investigate. But Molly thinks it was related to a case he was working on and sets out to find which one.

Along the way, Molly meets some of the artists/intellectuals of Greenwich Village with whom she feels she has more in common than the other immigrants in the city, with her feminist sensibilities.

my review: I really liked this delightful, historical fiction/cozy mystery. The setting is perfect, 1901 New York City and the author captures it well. Molly is a great character, very spunky and brave as she tracks clues through dangerous parts of the city. Molly is a little more serious than the main character in the Royal Spyness series, but so is the story at times.
The secondary characters are also very colorful, including Molly's new friends Gus and Sid, lesbian artists. Bowen also works in real-life characters as Molly goes with a suspect to a meeting of anarchists, including Emma Goldman.

There is a theme of unfairness to women that work as seamstresses, the corruption of the NYC police during this era, and the reality of life for many immigrants.

The ending deals with an historical event but I don't want to give anything away. I have already started the next book, For the Love of Mike and it so far it is every bit as good as this one.

my rating: 4.5/5 show less

Death of Riley
3.5 Stars

Irish immigrant Molly Murphy is acclimating to life in New City at the turn of the century, but is finding it difficult to hold on to a position due to her fiercely independent nature. After witnessing a private investigator at work, Molly is determined to apprentice herself out to him and all seems to be going well until Paddy Riley is murdered and Molly sets out to discover who killed him.

It took me a bit longer to get into this installment as compared to the first book mainly due to the slow pacing while Molly attempts to find employment. The story picks up in the second half with the murder and Molly’s investigation, and the inclusion of an actual historical event makes it all the more interesting.

Molly is show more an endearing and likable character albeit somewhat naive about the harsh realities of life. This could be explained by her rural upbringing or a reflection of a time in which people were more trusting of others. Sid and Gus are a charming pair, but meeting them is, once again, a very lucky coincidence.

Molly’s romance with Daniel takes an unexpected and disappointing turn. His potential as a love interest was established very well in the first book, however, his actions in this one leave much to be desired. I really hope that this plotline does not drag on for too long. Looking forward to Molly’s further adventures. show less

It’s 1901. Molly Murphy arrived in New York City not long ago from Ireland. She wants to train as a private investigator, but when she finds an investigator (Paddy Riley), he isn’t terribly interested in training her. He does, however, hire her to clean his office. Mollly still hopes that she’ll still be able to learn something, although Paddy won’t share any of his case information with her. She’s only been working with him a short time when she arrives at the office to find him dying (though she initially thought him asleep); she finds someone ransacking the back office and he hits her and runs; Molly only gets a brief glimpse, but the police don’t seem terribly interested in trying hard to investigate, so Molly will.

This show more was really good. It started off good – I do like the feisty Molly – but it picked up in the last 1/3 of the book, as things became dangerous for her. I wasn’t sure initially about Sid and Gus – two women that took Molly in with a room to live in – but I sure did like them by the end! The book seems to do a good job of portraying early 20th century NYC, as well. show less

This is another fun installment in the Molly Murphy mysteries. Molly is a spunky young Irish woman who emigrates from Ireland after killing a landowner. Newly arrived to New York City, she’s still looking for a job, but she wants to become a private investigator—not an appropriate occupation for a young woman in the early 1900’s. When she finally convinces a private investigator to take her on as his assistant, he is unceremoniously murdered--leaving her to fumble her way through investigating his death. Along the way she hooks up with a bohemian group in Greenwich Village and finds her own life in danger. I enjoyed reading this book, but was disappointed that Captain Daniel Sullivan is not as active a participant in this book as show more he was in the first one. I love the interplay between he and Molly and wish he played a larger role. I hope he’s around more in the next Molly Murphy mystery show less

Molly is now in New York and it is July 1901. Still in love with Daniel Sullivan (even though he seems to behave weirdly) and now looking for a job. Except that she does not seem to be able to find anything that suits her. Sullivan's idea that she becomes a companion is first dismissed (and anyone knowing Molly would figure out why) but then accepted. Until she realizes who the lady actually is - or at least this is as good excuse as any after Molly meets Paddy Riley - an old PI that she decides can teach her how to be a PI - after all that was her dream. But of course that being Molly, there is a dead man soon and things go downhill from there - she meets a writer and some other interesting people, moves to a new house and gets in the show more middle of a conspiracy to kill the president.

Bowen chose the beginning of the century so using the historical events make sense - although it ends up making the story a bit too far fetched. Molly sounds a bit too modern in places - not bad enough to grate but enough to be noticed.

From a series perspective, we meet Sid and Gus for the first time (the two women that will become such a big part of her life), Miss Van Woekem (giving her access to the high society) and she moves to her house next to the two of them. The story is ready to unfold. And Molly is well on her way to become a detective.

I miss the charm of the first book - not that this one does not have a charm of its own but it is too overcrowded and too restricted from the known end. It is worth a read but I hope that the next one will be back to the charming innocence of the first one. show less

Molly Murphy comes back in another whirlwind adventure, firmly established in NYC from, as she admits herself, being totally unable to go back home because of a small problem of having committed murder in self-defense. "Riley" works on setting Molly up as PI in the city, an almost impossible idea for a woman at the time, and her newfound boss and mentor, PI Paddy Riley, successfully echoes all the objections we'd expect from the time.

Molly, however, with her dogged persistence, tries to win him over by proving that some of a woman's supposed "drawbacks" make her quite effective in certain aspects of investigation. She might even do it, except that Paddy himself is murdered before she gets the chance.

Making up her mind to solve the show more crime and prove her worth, Molly tackles the problem with the head-on enthusiasm we've come to expect from her. And one aspect I genuinely appreciated is that she is, in fact, depicted as having more drive than actual sense at this point. She makes mistakes and learns some lessons about the trade the hard way. By the end, that makes the triumph all the sweeter. The return of familiar characters and the introduction of new also make this an engaging read. show less

Interesting but some of the parts I did struggle with. Molly is so wrapped up in her catholicism that it seemed a little liberal for this character to hang around in the Greenwich Village, but then, maybe this signals personal growth for her, as a new world is revealed to her, one, she apparently hadn't really considered in any great depth. Then I fretted about the change in her living circumstances, and how she sets so much of her precarious life in the hands of characters who freely admit being somewhat skittish in their interests - who was to say that their 'adoption' of her wouldn't also be a fad that they would tire of, although I couldn't see that she had all that much choice at the time. I suppose I wanted Molly to start to get show more more stability, which is something she really struggles with so far in this series. She also seems to rely really heavily on luck, while some aspects of her life are worked for, so much just falls in her lap. I wanted her to work harder for some of her personal gains, and achieve them for herself. In fact the only time she really does earn something for herself, winning a position in the employ of Paddy, she is actively held back from progressing further with her ambitions. Frustrating! show less