In Sunshine or in Shadow
A Molly Murphy Mystery
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Retired Detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is back with In Sunshine or in Shadow, the next book in this beloved series by New York Times bestselling author Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles.
New York, 1908: The days are getting longer—and warmer—in Manhattan. Molly Murphy Sullivan doesn’t want to leave her home in the city, but typhoid is back, and she’s expecting. So she heads north with the children to summer with her mother-in-law in Westchester County. Molly tells herself it won’t be so bad, after all the countryside is pretty, and she’s determined to make the best of it. Even if she’s leaving her husband, Daniel, behind. And at least she’s not the only one heading north. Her great friends, Sid and Gus, are headed to the Catskills to visit Sid’s family.
Though her mother-in-law is a surprisingly excellent host, Molly quickly grows bored. And when Sid and Gus invite her to visit, Molly jumps at the chance to stay with them at an artist’s community. What a pleasant time they’ll have, so far from the city, although Sid isn’t so enthusiastic about having to visit her family in the nearby Jewish bungalow community. But deep in the Catskills, tensions are running high, and it’s not long before a body delays Molly’s return to Westchester.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The mother-daughter team of Bowen and Broyles paint by numbers in their ho-hum third Molly Murphy historical mystery (after All That Is Hidden). In 1908 New York City, a pregnant Molly has shuttered her private detective agency at the urging of her husband, Daniel Sullivan, the NYPD's head of homicide. Fearing a summer typhus outbreak in Manhattan, Molly takes the couple's children to stay with Daniel's mother in Westchester. Quickly bored, she decides to visit her friends Sid and Gus at an artists' colony in the Catskills. Though it's meant to be a relaxing break from family, the trip swerves in another direction when Molly accidentally makes good on Sid's tongue-in-cheek wish to keep her intellectually stimulated by "drum up a murder" for her to solve. On a walk in the woods, the retired PI discovers a bullet-riddled corpse and launches an inquiry. Her initial investigation leads her to a land dispute involving a real estate developer with plans to build a resort catering to Jewish patrons. Fearing the police will settle on a Jewish suspect out of prejudice, rather than following the trail of evidence, Molly races to find the culprit before they make an arrest. Bowen and Broyles execute predictable story beats with little flourish or verve. Even dedicated series fans won't be able to get over the feeling they've seen this all before.
