Murphy’s Law
Aug 8th, 2007 by TooHotty
Murphy’s Law / Rhys Bowen
St. Martin’s, 2002 - 978-0-312-98497-7 (paperback)
I’m not a big mystery fan. Apart from a few Agatha Christie classics, I’ve never felt compelled to explore the genre. In fact, if not for the Book Awards Reading Challenge, I’d probably never even realize there were awards dedicated to the genre, and more tragically, I would never have come across Murphy’s Law by Rhys Bowen, a fantastic historical mystery and winner of the 2001 Agatha Award for Best Novel.
The story begins in Ballykillin, a village in Northern Ireland, in the early 1900’s. Molly Murphy, a plucky and quick-witted girl of 23, has just accidentally killed Justin Hartley, the son of wealthy landowners in defense of his attempted rape. Knowing she’d be hung despite her victims intentions, she steals her father’s money and flees. Fate intervenes, and she meets a woman slated to travel to America the following morning with her two children, but the woman has consumption and knows she will be turned away. Knowing Molly needs to get gone, the woman asks her to assume her identity and escort her children to America to live with their father. On the boat, O’Malley, an unsavory upstart of a man, offends Molly, and she slaps him and tells him off in front of everyone. When the boat docks on Ellis Island with O’Malley dead, Molly and a new friend from the boat are the prime suspects. Unable to rely on the police, Molly must set out and solve the crime herself.
Murphy’s Law is immediately compelling. Molly’s situation is outrageous, but not unbelievable. She can’t absolve herself because she is supposed to be someone else. If anyone knew her name, they could contact Ireland and find out what she’d done. She’s a woman alone in a terrifying city, and she has to learn to work with and against the established system and learn how to live as an immigrant and a woman in this society in order to accomplish her task.
The story is authentic. Bowen paints a turn-of-the-century New York straight from the history books. The novel deals with New York (Tammany Hall) politics, class, and gender roles, and Molly is thrust into it with a strange perspective. She’s naive and unaware of how such an advanced, bustling city works, but at the same time, she comes off as a distinctly modern woman, shrewd and unwilling to accept the limits of what women were expected to do.
So many dreams, so many hopes, and it was all going to end like this. If only I could have landed a good kick on [him], the way I had kicked Justin, I would have enjoyed seeing him lying dead beside my kitchen stove. It annoyed me that I hadn’t been quick enough or smart enough or strong enough. It’s stupid being a woman, was one of my final thoughts before I blacked out again.
As a New Yorker, this was an especially invigorating read. Molly’s friend Michael, the man she met on the boat, came to America with dreams of helping to build a skyscraper. Other people in the novel were working on constructing underground trains. The story brought Molly through Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, the Lower East Side. No matter how many History Channel documentaries I watch, nothing has made me aware of the history of the streets I walk down quite like this book has. At one point in the book, Michael is thrilled to be working on a new skyscraper in Union Square that he claims will be the tallest one yet. I have no idea what that building is, but I’d bet you Ms. Bowen knows and that 115 years ago, there was a man like Michael who felt on top of the world.
As with all good books, there’s always a little something to nag about. Here, it’s that Molly finds herself in a blossoming romance, which I think the story could have done without. Also, things tie up a bit too nicely at the end, though I did really appreciate that after everything that happened, the message of the book is that Molly will never fully understand the bizarre politics of New York.
So I’m officially recommending this book to anyone interested in historical fiction, New York history, immigrant history, or anything like that. As mysteries go, I can’t really give an accurate assessment because I don’t know enough. This is the first in a series, and I’m sure I’ll be exploring the rest fairly soon.
More info: