Engrossing!

 Wild Irish Rose (Molly Murphy #18) by Rhys Bowen; Clare Broyles 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am conflicted about Molly Sullivan. I love her gutsiness, the way she flies in the face of the accepted order of things. Maybe I’m conflicted because Molly is too. How to manage being a mother, a wife, a daughter-in-law, and how to continue to be a detective in the face of opposition, particularly from her husband?

It’s 1907, and a trip back to Ellis Island with Bridie and philanthropic neighbours Elena and Augusta (Aunt Sid and Aunt Gus), to distribute warm clothing to newly arrived immigrants has Molly recalling her own terrifying arrival here. None of her anxiety is helped by Bridie becoming lost and then thought by the authorities to be a recently landed immigrant. Stuff of nightmare for our Molly, as she imagines Bridie disappearing into the bowels of bureaucracy. When Molly meets a young, defenceless woman from Ireland, Rose McSweeney, who is accused of murder, with hair a similar red to her own, Molly rushes to defend her, and sets out to prove her innocence, despite the disapproval of her husband Daniel, Captain Sullivan of the New York police. 

Molly gets caught up in a maelstrom of situations, including finding a position for the Rose. I’m exhausted just from following the swirl of Molly’s activities. Between her mother-in-law, her husband, wanting to prove Rose’s innocence, and Brodie’s recalcitrant behavior, no wonder.

The murderer is caught but not without danger and heartache.

Bridie is growing up, and to some degree not helped by being caught betwixt a world that beckons, and the here and now. 

A solid read!

A St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley