1. Murphy’s Law
After killing a man in self-defence in Ireland, Molly Murphy flees the country by taking another woman’s place aboard a ship to New York. Her arrival at Ellis Island appears to offer a new life until a man with whom she argued is found murdered and…
2. Death of Riley
Determined to earn a living as an investigator, Molly persuades private detective Paddy Riley to take her on as an apprentice. Her training ends almost immediately when she finds Paddy dead in his office and discovers that his current cases may have brought him into conflict…
3. For the Love of Mike
Molly inherits several of Paddy Riley’s cases, including the search for a runaway Irish heiress and an undercover assignment in a garment factory where dress designs are being stolen. When a woman’s body is recovered from the East River, Molly fears that the missing young woman…
4. In Like Flynn
Molly goes undercover at the Hudson River estate of Senator Barney Flynn to determine whether two visiting spiritualists are frauds. The senator’s wife hopes the sisters can contact her son, who disappeared during a notorious kidnapping, and Molly quickly concludes that the old case was never…
5. Oh Danny Boy
Molly intends to distance herself from police captain Daniel Sullivan, but he is arrested and imprisoned on charges of taking bribes. Daniel insists that he has been framed and asks Molly to investigate the case that may have provoked his enemies. The trail leads to a…
6. In Dublin’s Fair City
A New York theatre impresario hires Molly to carry out private family business in Ireland, giving her a risky chance to return home. She sails aboard the Majestic under an assumed role, where a celebrated actress disappears and another passenger is found dead. Molly investigates the…
7. Tell Me Pretty Maiden
Molly and Daniel discover an unconscious young woman in snow-covered Central Park. When she wakes, she cannot speak or explain who she is, and the authorities prepare to send her to an asylum rather than investigate how she came to be abandoned. Molly takes responsibility for…
8. In a Gilded Cage
After marching with suffragists on Fifth Avenue and being arrested, Molly accepts cases from two Vassar graduates. One believes an uncle is withholding her inheritance, while the other suspects her husband of infidelity as influenza spreads through the city. When one of the women dies and…
9. The Last Illusion
Molly attends a performance by Harry Houdini, but an opening illusion goes disastrously wrong and a performer’s assistant is killed. Rival magician Signor Scarpelli accuses Houdini of sabotaging the equipment, and Houdini’s wife hires Molly to protect him as further threats appear. Molly enters the competitive…
10. Bless the Bride
Shortly before her marriage to Daniel, Molly accepts one final case from a wealthy Chinese businessman who wants her to find his missing bride. The young woman may have fled voluntarily, but the restrictions placed on Chinese women in New York make it difficult to learn…
11. Hush Now, Don’t You Cry
Molly and Daniel spend their honeymoon at the Newport estate of alderman Brian Hannan, an ambitious politician seeking higher office. The invitation seems generous until Hannan is found dead below the cliffs and the household begins protecting its own version of events. Although Molly has promised…
12. The Family Way
Pregnant and expected to remain at home, Molly receives a letter addressed to her former detective agency asking her to find a missing Irish servant. On the same day she learns that several babies have disappeared in New York, but Daniel refuses to let her assist…
13. City of Darkness and Light
After violence linked to Daniel’s police work threatens their New York home, Molly takes baby Liam to Paris to stay with Sid and Gus. She arrives to find that both women have disappeared, and her search moves through artists’ studios, salons and crowded cafés as political…
14. The Edge of Dreams
Molly and Liam survive a train crash at the same time that Daniel is investigating a series of apparently unrelated murders. After each death the killer sends Daniel a taunting message, and a new note makes the couple wonder whether the crash was intended to kill…
15. Away in a Manger
At Christmas in 1905, Molly and her ward Bridie meet two well-spoken English children singing and begging on a New York street. The children say that their mother has disappeared and that the aunt caring for them takes their money and treats them harshly. Molly begins…
16. Time of Fog and Fire
Daniel accepts a secret government assignment and tells Molly almost nothing about it. After seeing him in San Francisco in a newsreel and receiving a coded letter, Molly crosses the country with Liam, only to be told on arrival that Daniel has died. A message convinces…
17. The Ghost of Christmas Past
Following a miscarriage, Molly and Daniel accept a Christmas invitation to a mansion on the Hudson. The family remains haunted by the disappearance of their young daughter ten years earlier, when she walked into the snow and was never found. On Christmas Eve a girl arrives…
18. Wild Irish Rose
Molly returns to Ellis Island with Sid and Gus to distribute clothing to newly arrived immigrants. That evening Daniel reports a murder on the island and describes the principal suspect, an Irish woman whose appearance and circumstances closely resemble Molly’s own arrival years earlier. Convinced that…
19. All That Is Hidden
Daniel abruptly announces that the family will move to Fifth Avenue and that he will run for sheriff on the Tammany Hall ticket. His decision contradicts everything he has said about political corruption, and Molly suspects that he has entered the campaign for reasons he cannot…
20. In Sunshine or in Shadow
With typhoid returning to New York and another baby expected, Molly takes the children to stay with Daniel’s mother in Westchester. She soon accepts Sid and Gus’s invitation to visit an artist colony in the Catskills, close to the Jewish bungalow community where Sid’s family is…
21. Silent as the Grave
While Daniel is working in Washington, Molly takes the children to visit a film production run by her friend Ryan O’Hara. Bridie unexpectedly replaces an actress and proves so capable that she is asked to continue, leaving Molly concerned about the dangerous stunts and improvised effects…
22. Vanished in the Crowd
During New York’s 1909 Hudson–Fulton Celebration, Sid and Gus hire Molly to find a brilliant Vassar-trained scientist who failed to arrive for the festivities. The missing woman’s husband claims to know nothing, while Daniel asks Molly to discover what Sid, Gus and their former classmates are…