It is another rousing adventure w/ Georgiana discovering murders and whatnot. This time she is in Transylvania, home of the vampires and around every corner she is expecting to see a vamp lurking. This book is pretty fast paced w/ her crazy maid, the castle of horrors, and fears of vamps. I th...
I'm really enjoying this series and the audiobook narrator is very good. They are simple stories, not even Agatha Christie, but I enjoy this type of story more the older I get. The heroine is young, penniless, and a royal. She's not afraid to step out of her comfort zone and look for answers with...
Enjoyable and a bit more suspenseful than I had anticipated. I love this series and it's characters. They feel like friends I visit every time I read them!
Yet another solid entry to the Molly Murphy series. It is visibly not as good as the previous one. I'm beginning to wonder if any book in this series will get the elusive 5 stars that I reserve for outstanding books. The trouble with this book's story is that there are no real twists but rather w...
Sometimes I underestimate the tightrope that authors of historical fiction have to tread. So many expressions that are off limits. I was made aware of this when Molly Murphy made use of the word 'shock', meaning 'culture shock'. Yet that expression wasn't part of the vernacular in 1903. The autho...
I hadn't read any Molly Murphy books for years, so perhaps my tastes have changed, because I found Daniel to be annoyingly self righteous. I kept wondering why Molly would want to marry him if he wanted her to quit investigating and she worried so much about angering him. I admit I read the first...
I love anything by Rhys Bowen. This one rates top of the tops. (Actually, I read #12 before this, thinking it came after #10.) In this volume, Molly is a newly-wed on a delayed honeymoon. There's a nicely convoluted, historically accurate plot, a cast of characters that include many suspects, and...
While Molly's spunk has not lessened her resolve to be independent has. Clearly she is pregnant in this book so maybe that is why she is more cautious and allows herself to be treated like a china doll, but it does not suit. The case was fine in terms of being able to figure it out as written, ...
The Amersham Rubies started off pretty interesting. I was drawn in and my curiosity was piqued. Unfortunately, the conflict wasn't resolved in a realistic fashion and I found the resolution too abrupt. This is another one that is meant to draw the reader into the series and not necessarily thi...
Rhys Bowen is a dab hand at presenting a historical setting with verisimilitude and a liveliness that generally gets along well with modern sensibilities. I don't have to say that is hard to do and hard to find. This book in particular, thanks to bringing in progressive politics of the time, is o...
Molly Murphy is sent by aging well-off NYC theatrical impresario Tommy Burke to find baby sister left with parish priest when they fled famine. But even before the ship lands, Broadway's leading actress, Oona Sheehan, vanishes, and her maid is found dead in her cabin.
Evans and a psychic barmaid are on the trail of the missing director of the recently opened Sacred Grove New Age Center.
A mutual and passionate encounter with Danile one night, sadly, did no improvement on Molly's opinions about Daniel. She, in fact, was utterly dissappointed by him and determined to have nothing more to do with that despicable, cowardice creature. Thus, she cut short all contact from him. All let...
Fresh out of Riley's closed case, Daniel expected to see Molly intimidated by all the dangers she had experienced. Like he said, her nine cat lives were rapidly being used up. Molly, notwithstanding, still determined to continue on this line of work.Tired of all the ludicrous divorce cases, Molly...
London 1932. Narrator Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the throne, is flat broke. She bolted from Scotland -- and engagement to Fishface (Prince Stiegfriend) -- for London, where she has:a) built a fire in the hearth b) fallen for an absolutely unsuitable Irish peerc) ...
This time this book was recommended to me by my Mom - who received the entire collection from a friend. This is a typical British Cozy-style mystery. Or, to be precise, a Welsh cozy set in Northern Wales in a small village at the foot of Mount Snowdon. Evan Evans is the local police constable, wh...
If I had not read five previous books in this Constable Evans cozy mystery, I would not have stuck with it. It was slow to get going and at times poorly edited. Ms Bowen telegraphs her punches here, and there was little suspense. However, I am glad I made it to the end.This book helped me clarify...
Fifth in the Constable Evans mystery series set in Wales revolving around the undecided Constable Evan Evans.The StoryA small film crew has descended upon Llanfair to produce a documentary about raising an old World War II German fighter plane from the depths of Llyn Llydaw. Exciting for the vill...
Detective Constable Evan Evans and his new bride, Bronwen, are settling into married life in their little cottage above the village of Llanfair when they meet the daughter of one of the village’s newest families, a sixteen-year-old Pakistani girl named Jamila. Bronwen and Jamila are becoming goo...
Eighth in the Constable Evans mystery series set in Wales and revolving around a bright young policeman lacking the time to hike as much as he was used to. My Take I do so enjoy this series. Bowen has created a small cast of colorful characters whose lives move forward and every once in awhile, t...
Fourth in the Constable Evans mystery series set in a small village in Wales.The StoryOne arson fire after another has Evans frustrated especially when Peter Potter---oops, sorry, that's Sergeant Potter to you!---is on the case. Potter'll show these backcountry idjits how to solve crime. If they ...
The second in the Constable Evans Welsh mystery series, Evan Help Us has a 1950-ish feel to it with a whole crew of fun characters whom you can't help but enjoy including the Detective Inspector who is more concerned with his fishing than the truth (he does remind me of Racer from the Inspector J...
Third in the Constable Evans mystery series set in Wales, Llanfair is privileged to have a former son return, a world-famous opera singer, Ifor Llewelyn, who rents the Powell-Jones house for the summer. Mrs Powell-Jones is over the moon as she can kill two birds with one stone: take care of mummy...
It’s wintertime in New York, and for the first time since Irish immigrant Molly Murphy started her early-twentieth-century detective agency, she is completely snowed in with work. While she’s proving to be quite the entrepreneur and is very much in demand by some of Broadway’s brightest stars and...
The soldiers at the checkpoints were surprised to see us, the area having been evacuated. They waved us to a halt, and then stood around the auto. I saw a couple of them fingering their guns. “Daniel Sullivan, New York police,” Daniel said. “I don’t have my identification badge. It was lost with ...
Steady on, it’s me. Algie.” His face came into focus in the light of the torches that lined the pool. “Algie? What on earth are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were supposed to be working on a ranch.” “Well, old thin...
My sister-in-law Fig sounded amazed, and a trifle annoyed too, as she took the envelopes from the silver salver the butler was holding. “And they look as if they might be invitations.” We had been drinking coffee in the morning room of our London house—the easiest room to ...
Horrid experience. I stared at him. My mouth was probably open, which I know is not acceptable for a lady. But you must admit it’s not every day that one is accused of murder. “If you will please step outside, mademoiselle,” Lafite said quiet...
Having come to this conclusion, I went up to see what awful torture Queenie was putting my clothes through. I found she was sitting on my bed, mopping a very red face. “Blimey, miss,” she said. “I’m bushed. I had to drag all this stuff up these ruddy stairs.” “Did Hamilton not send the footman to...
They were Mr. and Mrs. Upthorpe and their daughter, Ethel—a large girl with a rather vacant moon face and Marcel-waved hair that somehow didn’t make her seem smarter. Both mother and daughter wore well-cut clothes that shouted Paris, but they still seemed ill at ease. The Wexlers and the Upthorpe...
My mother-in-law took one look at me and ordered me up to bed. “I told you it was too soon for you to be running around,” she said. “The only thing that can heal ribs is rest. Now, you go and lie down and I’ll bring you up some of the soup I’ve just made.” For once I allowed myself to be bossed l...
Was she shut away somewhere—a prisoner in the nuns’ part of the building? Had she decided to join the order and now lived among the novices, or was it possible that she was no longer alive? If the latter, then who had killed her and where had they hidden her body? In an old building of locked doo...
I protested that Daniel would probably rather that I waited until I could see Houdini with him, but they thought this was bosh. “You don’t have to tell him everything you do,” Sid said. “A good wife learns when to speak up and when to keep wisely silent.” “A lot you know about being a good wife.”...
Liam in hysterics with a soaked diaper? My mother-in-law looking indignant and uncomfortable? But complete quiet reigned as Sid opened the door to me. “What news?” she asked. “The doctors think he will live, thank God,” I said. “The bullet just missed his heart and lungs. It went right through hi...
“You helped build those sheds, didn’t you?” she asked me out of the blue one day, a week or so later. I’d met her down in Llandudno and we went to the pictures. Joan Fontaine in Suspicion was playing, and Joan Fontaine was one of her favorites, right up there with Ginger and Betty and Carole Lomb...
Llewellyn seemed more composed when she came back down the stairs, in fact she looked almost relieved. “My son is going to try for the first flight out of Milan in the morning,” she said. “He wants to be here for me as soon as possible. He has always been very … concerned for me. My daughter will...
Martin's Minotaur, New York. e print edition. Copyright 2001 by Rhys Bowen. BOOK JACKET INFORMATION "Irish humor and gritty determination transplanted to New York, but with more charm and optimism than the usual law attributed to Murphy."--Anne Perr...
Any other time I would have been excited. I was not conscious of being driven home. I wanted to creep straight up to my room, but as I came into Kensington Palace the door to the sitting room was open and Marina and the countess were having tea. “Lo...
in New York. Surely an Italian gang couldn’t have found out about my trip to Paris and sent someone to harm my friends? And even if they’d heard that I was to be sent to Paris, how could they have discovered Sid and Gus’s address? Then I realized that an Italian gang in New York might well have a...
“Wait,” I called. The procession halted and turned to face me. “I know who she is,” I said. “I had a slight accident when I was riding a bicycle two days ago. I knocked her down. There was oil from the chain on her skirt. Look—here it is. She didn't...
Watkins reacted with an expletive when Evan called him on his mobile at D.C.I. Hughes’s instruction. “Was there evidence they’d been torn from the wall? Vandals, do you think?” “There was no sign that they had ever been there,” Evan replied. “If I hadn’t seen them myself, I wouldn’t have believed...