In sunshine or in shadow

The latest in the long-running series featuring "retired" detective Molly Murphy Sullivan finds her pregnant, relaxing in the Catskills, away from the typhoid fever outbreak at home in New York. Her good friends, Sid and Gus, are staying nearby at a feminist artist colony. Sid's family is also in the Catskills, renting rooms on their farm, and when she and Gus visit, Molly joins them. But a nasty surprise awaits Sid. A matchmaker has brought Sid and her cousin, Mira, prospective bridegrooms. A death puts an end to that plan, but when Mira becomes a suspect, Molly springs into action. As usual, Bowen and Broyles (All That Is Hidden, 2023) do a good job of blending the historical--here, the place of Jews in society at the turn of the last century--with clever detecting. A few quibbles: at times the Jewish accents border on the stereotypical, and the women at the artist colony seem a bit silly for trailblazers. But everything crime-wise is tied together neatly, making for a satisfying read with a historical note that expands the story.

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. (Mar.)

A 1908 visit to the Catskills is spoiled by murder. Because New York City is suffering an outbreak of typhoid, Police Captain Daniel Sullivan encourages his pregnant wife, Molly, to remove their household to his mother's home in Westchester. Family ties also take Molly's best friends, free-spirted feminists Sid and Gus, to the Catskills when a letter arrives asking Sid to come see her elderly Bubbe and Zayde. Her grandparents, who disapprove of her lifestyle, live quietly on a farm that they're laboriously converting to a bungalow colony for Jews who are unwelcome elsewhere. Molly, who's bored at her mother-in-law's, visits her friends, who are staying at an artists' retreat near Sid's relatives. Sid's grandfather's alleged ill health was just an excuse to get her to the farm, where a matchmaker has brought possible mates for both Sid and her cousin Mira. Mira's match, Mr. Simon Levin, is a flashy, conceited young man with plans to build a hotel on disputed state land; he's already fighting with the owners of a nearby bluestone quarry over the noise they make with dynamite. Sid's match is a college professor she finds interesting but has no intention of wedding. While they're all out walking in the woods, Levin is shot with his own rifle, and the local police fasten on Mira, who's been acting bad ever since she realized she was tricked by her grandparents, as his killer. When her friends beg Molly to help Mira, she unearths other motives for his murder, but it will take a visit from Daniel to get Mira exonerated. Despite a few satisfying surprises, the fascinating historical information on the early Catskill resorts overwhelms the mystery. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.