Rhys Bowen Oh Danny Boy

Oh Danny Boy

Rhys Bowen

St. Martin's, Mar 2006, $23.95, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0312328176

It is the beginning of the twentieth century, and Irish immigrant Molly Murphy is one of the first female detectives working in New York City. It has not been easy for Molly to adjust to her new country, especially since she discovers her beau NYPD Captain Daniel Sullivan was engaged to blue-blood Arabelle Norton at the same time he was seeing her. Daniel is trying to get in touch with Molly by phone and visits to her abode, but she has successfully dodged his efforts.

She is able to avoid him until a constable literally drags her to see Daniel, who is in the Tombs because he was arrested for accepting a bribe from a mobster in front of the police commissioner, amongst others. The envelope he received was supposed to contain a list of underworld figures who want to sponsor an illegal activity, a prize fight, but instead held money. He needs Molly to prove he has been set up, probably either to remove him from an investigation he was working on which includes doping a horse, or that of the East Side Ripper serial killer. Molly knows the danger, but for personal reasons must help OH DANNY BOY.

Rhys Bowen has created one of the most ferociously spunky heroines to grace the pages of a historical mystery series. Molly feels strongly that women can do anything men can do, sometimes better, and demands equal rights and liberties at a time when females cannot vote. Although she is deeply hurt by Daniel's betrayal, she still cares for the "rat", and willingly risks her life in some dangerous neighborhoods to prove he is innocent. The clues to the police cases and Daniel's frame are laid out cleverly so that the audience can piece it together, but they are not obvious, and that makes for a pleasing puzzler, inside a look back to a major immigration wave era.