Hush Now, Don't You Cry

January 16, 2012
Agatha-winner Bowen’s suspenseful 11th Molly Murphy mystery (after 2011’s Bless the Bride) takes Molly and her new husband, NYPD captain Daniel Sullivan, to Newport, R.I., for their honeymoon in the fall of 1903. Late one night, in the midst of a torrential downpour, the couple arrive at their ocean-front lodgings, a “cottage” offered to them by New York City alderman Brian Hannan, only to discover the gates locked. Just before they decide to seek shelter elsewhere, Molly spots the face of a maniacally laughing child in a window. Hannan apparently never told anyone in his family of his invitation to the Sullivans, which puts them in an awkward position after Hannan turns up dead under circumstances that suggest murder. Since their host isn’t alive to confirm their story, the pair fall under suspicion, and Molly must once again do some sleuthing. An unusually tricky solution makes this one of the better entries in the series.

February 15, 2012
A police captain and his sleuthing spouse investigate a murder while on their honeymoon in early-20th-century Newport. Molly Murphy and Daniel Sullivan had to give up their planned honeymoon when Daniel was called upon to investigate a fatal accident due to a collapse at a subway construction project. Now powerful Alderman Brian Hannan, part owner of the construction company, has offered them the use of a cottage on his Rhode Island estate. Perhaps he has an ulterior motive, for he tells Daniel that he thought he had got something wrong. Arriving late and soaking wet on a stormy night, Molly is sure she sees the face of a child in a tower of the main house. When Hannan's extended family arrives the next day, they're put out by his command to visit in the unfashionable off-season. They're surprised when Hannan fails to show up and even more surprised when his body is found at the base of a cliff. The local police are eager to write it off as an accident, but Molly and Daniel are not so sure, and an autopsy proves he died from cyanide poisoning. Though the relatives are eager to see the sleuthing couple depart, Daniel is kept in place by pneumonia. Despite her agreement with Daniel to give up investigating, Molly can't ignore the murder, especially when she learns that Hannan's granddaughter died in a fall in the same spot. The loving family members seem the most likely candidates for murderer, but which relative actually did the deed? The latest addition to Molly's case files (Bless the Bride, 2011, etc.) offers a charming combination of history, mystery and romance.

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March 1, 2012

Snap up the latest entry in Bowen's award-winning series. It's 1904, and Molly Murphy is back (Bless the Bride). Her dream honeymoon falls apart when the estate's host turns up dead. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/11.]

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