Molly is a charming if pushy heroine who eventually earns Sullivan’s appreciation. The plot is perhaps too thick with red...
Taking a sabbatical from her usual protagonist, Constable Evan Evans (Evanly Choirs, 1999, etc.), Bowen introduces a new sleuth in a 19th-century setting. Molly Murphy, living in Ballykillin village in Ireland, has just killed Justin, a son of the gentry, when he tried to rape her. Now she’s on the run, planning to board a ship to England. At the dock, she’s approached by Kathleen O’Conner, mother of two, hoping to board the Majestic to New York to join her husband Seamus. Unfortunately, the mandatory physical exam has revealed that Kathleen has tuberculosis, and she is forbidden from sailing. So she begs Molly to take her name and bring the children to their father. Naturally, Molly agrees with alacrity, and is soon caught up in the misery of an ocean trip in steerage—to say nothing of the unwelcome attentions of the brutish troublemaker O’Malley, who seems to have known the real Kathleen. After the landing at Ellis Island, O’Malley is found stabbed to death. Police detective Daniel Sullivan questions Molly, little knowing how deeply the murderer’s identity is buried in past events and acts of betrayal.
Molly is a charming if pushy heroine who eventually earns Sullivan’s appreciation. The plot is perhaps too thick with red herrings, but the portrait of the ocean voyage, Ellis Island, and the early wave of Irish settlers in New York is fascinating.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-28206-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.
Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
