In A Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen

Product DescriptionIrish immigrant Molly Murphy and her New York City P.I. business are in the midst of a sweeping influenza epidemic and a fight for women’s suffrage that lands her in jail. Her betrothed, Police Captain Daniel Sullivan, finds her, but he hardly has time to bail her out, what with Chinese gangs battling for control of a thriving opium trade. The only consolation Molly can take from her vexing afternoon in the clink is that it made her some new friends among the Vassar suffragists---and brought her a pair of new cases.

For the first, Emily Boswell is convinced her miserly uncle stole her inheritance and wants Molly to uncover the truth behind her parents’ lives and deaths. Second, Emily’s college roommate Fanny Poindexter wants Molly to find proof of her husband’s philandering so that she can leave him without one red cent. But when Fanny dies and her husband claims she’s a victim of the epidemic, it’s more than Molly’s conscience can take.

Rhys Bowen’s Agatha and Anthony Award--winning historical series continues to breathe life into the past with its wit and charm and its complete sense of early-twentieth-century New York, which makes In a Gilded Cage her most accomplished mystery yet.

My thoughts
I have enjoyed each new chapter of the Molly Murphy series and “In a Gilded Cage” is no exception. Ms. Bowen has written another novel about this female private detective in New York City and the turn of the last century. Since I enjoy historical fiction, I really take pleasure in the painstaking detail that Ms. Bowen describes the city in these books. Having lived in New York City, I can get the sense of what it was like 100 years ago. Molly is hired by not one but two female acquaintances that lead her throughout the city, while she still tries to maintain a relationship with her policeman fiancé. These Molly Murphy mysteries are pure historical joy.