Tell Me, Pretty Maiden

by Rhys Bowen

We readers have been following the adventures of Molly Murphy, an extraordinary Irish immigrant to New York City in the early 1900's. Forced to flee Ireland, she arrives penniless. Unwilling to succumb to the drudgery of being a maid, or working in the sweat shops, definitely not interested in being kept in a brothel, she happens upon a job with a private detective. When he dies tragically, she just keeps on as a detective. Her Irish luck brings continuing success to her career.

This time she is dealing with multiple cases. A malignant ghost haunting a theater, a background check of a prospective groom, and an investigation of a robbery. In the robbery, the evidence is overwhelming against a young man, a nephew of a friend, who is missing. Can she find him and prove his innocence? Not to mention it, Molly found a young girl lying in the snow, catatonic. Molly takes her in, determined to discover what terrible trauma has robbed her of speech. Then there is Molly’s boyfriend, Daniel Sullivan, who continues to brood over his unjust dismissal from the police force and keeps treating her without respect for her independent nature. For Molly won’t be shoved into the prison of being what society expects women of that era to be.

My major complaint about this story is the author attempted to keep the reader in the dark, by keeping Molly clueless on things she should have questioned or figured out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much a mystery to me what had happened and I found it irritating that Molly wasn’t smart enough to have a clue. Despite that weakness, I enjoyed the characters and the setting very much. This time we get to see backstage at the theater and the insides of the horrid insane asylum and meet the famous Nelly Bly. Hopefully next time out, the author will allow Molly to show her native brilliance. And please get Daniel over his depression, he broods way too much, not to mention his male chauvinistic behavior is really irritating. He either needs to grow up or Molly needs to kick him out.

Reviewed by Linda Suzane

TELL ME, PRETTY MAIDEN, A Molly Murphy Mystery
Rhys Bowen
St. Martin’s Minotaur 2008
ISBN 13: 978-0-312-34943-1