Whatever Happened to Molly Bloom?

What if James Joyce’s Leopold Bloom was accused of the murder of his wife, Molly? Stirling (Lantern for the Dark) explores the possibilities in a mystery whose execution doesn’t do justice to this imaginative premise. Insp. Jim Kinsella of the Dublin Metropolitan Police investigates after someone uses a teapot to fatally bludgeon Molly in her bed one day in the spring of 1905. Her husband is the obvious suspect, though he says she was dead when he entered the bedroom. Bloom had motive as well. Molly, a popular singer, was having an affair with Hugh “Blazes” Boylan, as in Ulysses. Those familiar with Joyce’s novel will appreciate how Stirling works in details from it. For example, Bloom’s taste for organ meat plays a part in his ostensible alibi, since he claims to have been at the butcher’s when Molly was killed. But readers who haven’t read Joyce will likely find this to be a dull and pedestrian whodunit. (Feb.)