I love finding new mystery books to read; finding a new mystery series is even better. Growing up mysteries were my favorite genre and I’ve read a lot of them. As an adult, I will still read mysteries that are for younger readers because sometimes I want something light to read. Recently, I had learned that there’s a new American Girl Mystery out. I’ve read most of the American Girl books and have enjoyed reading their line of mystery series', which focuses on a particular American Girl character that I like. Recently, I discovered the American Girl books that feature Rebecca Rubin as the main character. This series takes place around 1914 and Rebecca lives with her family on the Lower East Side in New York City. American Girl published a mystery featuring Rebecca and the mystery she solved while staying at a summer camp. I think I love this character because the time period reminds me of when my paternal grandmother, Virginia Womble was a girl.
I went to the library to checkout the new Rebecca mystery, but it was checked out. I was disappointed that I couldn’t read the book immediately, and put a hold on the next available copy. Still, I was determined to read a mystery that took place around that same era.
I’m not a big fan of historical fiction or books set in the British Isles, but I’m interested in learning about other eras or historical events. There’s no better way to learn about history than to read historical fiction.
I had joined a group on Ravelry that talked about mysteries and learned about some new series that I wouldn’t have known existed. One was the Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear. Unfortunately, I hadn’t written down the authors’ names, so I couldn’t readily look for the books I was interested in. A co-worker told me that she likes to surf the shelves at libraries to find new books that might interest her. I tried doing that with some very interesting results.
I started at the end of the mystery books because somehow I had remembered that the person who wrote the Maisie books’ last name began with a W. I found one Maisie book, but it wasn’t the first one, so I didn’t get it. However, I did put the first book in the Maisie series on hold. Then I began my shelf surfing. I wasn’t finding anything that interested me and was starting to feel a little disappointed. Now, please keep in mind that I was at my local branch library and not at the main central library, where I’m almost positive that I would’ve had better luck. I was very close to the beginning of the alphabet when I saw a series of books by Rhys Bowen. I thought, “what an unusual name!” I noticed that this author appeared to write many books set in the past and believed that I was on to something. I scanned the line of Bowen’s books and then pulled one out and discovered that it belonged to the Molly Murphy Mystery series. I searched through the books until I found the first one in this series. They say don’t judge a book by it’s cover and I really tried not to. The cover shows a sepia toned picture of Ellis Island with a line of immigrants trudging away from the building. I read the inside flap and was even more intrigued. Here appeared a very similar book to what I had originally been searching for. Granted the main character was Irish Catholic and not Jewish as in the Rebecca books. I decided to give Molly Murphy a shot.
I said earlier that I don’t like books that take place in England or a similar locale. This Molly book, titled Murphy’s Law, begins in Ireland. Molly Murphy is running away from something—something bad. She’s on a train to Belfast to escape an untold horrific event in her life. Despite the setting of the beginning, I was hooked. The mystery part of the book unfolds slowly—very slowly for some maybe. I didn’t have an issue with the book’s pace because I loved reading about the early 1900’s era. It takes place in 1901 to be exact just after the death of Queen Victoria. Several chapters are set at Ellis Island where a murder occurs and Molly Murphy’s possible sighting of the killer. After she’s finally allowed to leave Ellis Island, she lives in a squalid tenement with a few acquaintances. The ending to the mystery seems rather too pat in my opinion, but it’s still a good read. I liked how I was unable to predict who the killer was, but at the same time I don’t know if the author was really playing fair with the reader. It’s still a free country, and authors can write mysteries any way they want. My feeling is that Ms. Bowen wanted to write this series and she needed a lead in book to the series as a way to introduce the characters and so the murder that takes place is almost just a vehicle to the book.
