Silent as the Grave

January 6, 2025
Mother-daughter duo Bowen and Broyles (In Sunshine or in Shadow) deliver a subpar entry in Bowen’s long-running series featuring PI Molly Murphy. In 1909 New York City, Molly has retired from detective work to raise her infant daughter. She also cares for adopted 14-year-old Birdie, who’s asked at the last minute to replace the female lead of director D.W. Griffith’s latest film while Molly is visiting a friend on set. Shooting goes smoothly until a fire in the editing room destroys the production’s negatives. Then Birdie nearly dies while filming a dangerous stunt, and Molly decides that something sinister is afoot. She predictably jumps back into PI work, going undercover on the set to figure out who’s behind the mishaps. Bowen and Broyles fail to convincingly evoke the period, with real-life figures including Griffith and Thomas Edison coming across more like caricatures of their historical personas than actual people. Even devoted series fans will be disappointed.

February 1, 2025
Getting involved with moviemaking turns out to be a bad idea for a part-time detective in 1909. Although NYPD Captain Daniel Sullivan acknowledges the talents of his wife, former private detective Molly Murphy, he prefers her to stick to mothering. While Daniel's away in Washington, though, Molly--whose friendship with her feminist neighbors Sid and Gus often gets her in trouble--lets herself be talked into allowing her clever, beautiful adopted daughter, Bridie, to visit a movie studio where her old friend Ryan O'Hare, a playwright, is acting in a new film. Bridie's excitement peaks when she's offered a part originally given to a young girl who can't remember her lines. With a young son, Liam, and baby Mary Kate at home, Molly is less thrilled because she's not sure she can trust her friends to chaperone. Acceding to Bridie's pleas anyway, she spends as much time at the studio as she can and meets director DW Griffith, actress Mary Pickford, and Harry and Arthur Martin, twin brothers who are heavily invested in the studio's success. They're constantly battling Thomas Edison, who routinely sues anyone he sees as a competitor. Molly, originally fascinated with filming, comes to realize that some odd occurrences have put the project in jeopardy. Bridie is almost run over by a train, someone is nearly electrocuted in the studio pool, and things keep going wrong. So, Molly dredges up her detective skills and helps Daniel identify a clever killer. Adventure, real-life characters, and plenty of moviemaking lore combine in this tiptop cozy.

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February 7, 2025
Over the course of 20 previous books, Molly Murphy has evolved from a solitary sleuth to the wife of police officer Daniel Sullivan and mother of three, though she's still keen to investigate whenever she can. When her adopted teen daughter, Birdie, gets a chance to appear in the latest form of entertainment, a silent movie, Molly is doubtful but doesn't see any harm in it until Birdie is almost killed while tied to a railroad track. And this is neither the first nor the last thing to go wrong, with the worst being murder. Well-plotted and featuring some familiar names, like Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith, the story hums along with a new likely suspect at every crank of the camera. As in previous mysteries in the series, the historical details, here about New York life at the turn of the last century and the burgeoning film industry, add interest. An intriguing epilogue previews an exciting new direction for the family that should take their sleuthing in a new direction.

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