Joelle R. (dangerpronered) reviewed on 1/11/2009 + 22 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

Set in 1903, Bowen's sixth brisk Molly Murphy historical (after 2006's Oh Danny Boy) takes the Irish immigrant to New York City back to the Emerald Isle for an assignment to find a theater impresario's long-lost sister, left behind when his family fled the potato famine 50 years earlier. Even though Molly had left Ireland under a cloud of suspicion herself, she bids a temporary farewell to her beau, New York police captain Daniel Sullivan. The voyage begins auspiciously when a famous actress offers Molly her first class stateroom, but Molly's discovery of a corpse in her sumptuous bed is only the beginning of a complicated, dangerous journey. In Dublin, she becomes embroiled in the Irish struggle for freedom and finds herself a target for murder. With a riveting plot capped off by a dramatic conclusion, Bowen captures the passion and struggles of the Irish people at the turn of the 20th century.

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