Wild Irish Rose

Set in 1907, bestseller Bowen’s uneven 18th Molly Murphy mystery (after 2017’s The Ghost of Christmas Past), coauthored with daughter Broyles, takes Molly to Ellis Island one cold winter day to help distribute warm clothing to immigrants. There Molly encounter a near-ringer for herself, Rose McSweeney, who—as Molly’s husband, police captain Daniel Sullivan, tells her that evening—is suspected of fatally stabbing a man in an Ellis Island storeroom. The corpse carries no identification, the murder weapon is missing, and the story of the witness who claims he saw Rose leaving the murder scene doesn’t entirely add up. Herself an Irish immigrant once falsely accused of a crime, Molly is determined to clear the woman’s name despite Daniel’s opposition. Hiding her plans, she tracks Rose to the boarding house in which the police are keeping watch on her and strikes up a friendship. Well-drawn family dynamics and Molly’s feisty personality compensate only in part for a mystery in which her blindness to obvious clues isn’t credibly explained by her emotional investment in the case. Still, series fans will enjoy catching up with Molly and company. Agents: Christina Hogrebe and Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Mar.)