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 decided to go back to her original intention to find lost relatives. Hence, she advertised her trade on a newspaper and immediately got an assignment for finding an eloped couple from Ireland and another one for undercover work as a garment worker at a garment company to detect a spy who copied designs and spirited them away to the rival company within the mist of the workers . Without having any sucess in this business for several months, Molly was out of funds, and besides also needed to find a place of her own to host an invalid man together with his army of two starving children. She had no choice but to work on both cases simultaneously.While undercovering as a worker, Molly had to suffer from the harsh working condition and the ill treatment of all the other workers. Sympathetic to the girls and furiated with the unfairness, Molly was inadvertently being drawn to the workers' revolution. She even helped to organise a strike against the owner of a garment company. At a meeting, Molly first encountered Jacob Singer, an active member of the United Hebrew Trade who professed to help organise strikes and to assist fledging strikers. This Mr. Singer was instantly attracted to Molly and tried to find every oppotunities to get close to Molly. The man was no wicked Daniel. He was a gentleman of impeccable manners. Jacob soon hinted his intention to marry Molly since he apparently fell in love at first sight with her. Daniel noting the presence of this unwanted Jewish gentleman grew more anxious and agitated. But Molly was no less agitated than Daniel and got even more aggravated by his possessive behaviors and his cowardice at not being able to break off his engagement with the spoilt Arabella creature. Daniel was then granted a nickname of "Daniel the Deceiver" by Sid and Gus. This formed a delicous triangle love story.Excellent read. My favourite characters were Sid and Gus. It was kind of fun watching Daniel and Jacob making bullet eyes at each other.
Molly Murphy is determined to be a private investigator, but finds many people in New York don't think that line of work is proper for women. Then two business opportunities turn up: An aristocratic family in Dublin hire her to locate their daughter whom they fear has fled with her unsavory boyfriend to New York and asked by a garment owner to work uncover to find the person who had committed industrial espionage by stealing designs and selling the to a competitor. Daniel has kept in contact with Molly and claims to love her, but refuses to break off his engagement to a woman who could ruin his career. Molly agrees to take on both jobs and begins work as a piece worker while she searches for the girl. The working conditions are atrocious with freezing rooms, pay docked for needing to use the restroom, overcrowding, and no talking allowed. Bowen uses these appalling conditions for women workers to have her female heroine take a major role in striking for better working conditions. A frightening hazard of working in cramped, close rooms without proper ventilation cause a fire with Molly taking swift action to save the day. A wonderful continuation of the story of a young woman trying to make it on her own in the large city of New York.
What do You think about For The Love Of Mike (2004)?
Tired of divorce cases and the sordid details of society marriages, Molly decides to try her original plan of hunting relatives in the new world for people still back in Europe. While working her first case in that direction and trying to locate a society daughter that ran off with a groom, she also goes undercover as a garment worker in a factory to try to ferret out who is stealing designs for a competing company. I will admit to getting a bit dragged down in this one. The way the two cases fit so neatly together was just a bit too coincidental to ignore for me. Bowen tends to rely on coincidence and things falling into place, and I can usually overlook it, but this one strained my capacity.
—Michelle
“For the Love of Mike” by Rhys Bowen is a Molly Murphy Mystery. This is the third book in the series and I really wish I had started with the first one. Although this is a stand-alone book, I would like to have read about Molly before. She has taken over her deceased boss’s business as a private investigator, back when women were not generally found doing this type of work, and to the chagrin of her police captain ex-boyfriend. She is asked to go undercover in the garment industry to find someone who is stealing the fashions before they can be produced by the designed and who is putting them on the market under their own name. I thought that the story line was quite engaging. I especially like the Irish banter and wit that is prevalent among the characters. I could truly imagine life as it was in New York in 1901. The immigrants, who are seeking a better life, find themselves housed in tenements and eking out a living for little or no money. Most have left relatives behind in the Old Country and are trying to make enough to send for them. I really liked reading about this time period.I was sent a print copy of this book by Night Owl Reviews in return for my honest review. You can find this review on my blog at http://wp.me/p2pjIt-he. Other reviews can be found at http://imhookedonbooks.wordpress.com.
—Barb Klein
The series get better as I read. This book is from my library. The characters are well developed and new ones are added. The research of time is outstanding. In Molly quest to be a professional investor continues she finds that many avenues are not open to women. Some of them are even dangerous. She is about ready to find another job when she gets a couple of new tasks. One will take her into the garment industry sweatshops of the time. She horrified of the conditions that she finds and soon finds herself joining a union.. The other undertaking Molly is asked to find a runaway English daughter who eloped with a undesirable man. Molly has enough money to rent a house and brings the O'Conner family to live with her. Molly needs to be succeed at her job in order to live her own life.
—Betty
