In Bowen's absorbing, well-plotted fourth entry in this Agatha Award–winning historical series (after 2003's For the Love of Mike
), Molly Murphy's former beau, policeman Daniel Sullivan, arranges for Molly to leave New York City (and the rapidly spreading typhoid epidemic of 1902). The police are interested in the Sorensons, a pair of sisters working as spiritualists, whom they want to expose as fakes. Molly joins the upstate household of Sen. Barney Flynn, posing as one of his numerous cousins recently arrived from Ireland. Flynn's wife, Theresa, has invited the Sorensons to the Flynns' Hudson River estate because she wants to make contact with her missing son, presumed dead after disappearing in a kidnapping attempt several years before. Molly also plans to investigate what happened to the Flynns' son at the behest of the child's nurse, who was implicated in the crime but still proclaims her innocence. Determined to get at the truth, the redoubtable Molly has to confront a dark part of her own past before this complex tale comes to a bittersweet and heartfelt conclusion. Agent, Meg Ruley at Jane Rotrosen Agency. Author tour. (Mar. 17)
FYI:
Bowen is also the author of the Constable Evans series, including
Evan's Gate (Forecasts, Mar. 29, 2004), which is a best novel finalist for an Edgar this year.
