Hello, my name is Molly Murphy. Actually it has just changed to Molly Sullivan. My life just underwent a dramatic change recently, when I married my sweetheart, New York Police Captain Daniel Sullivan. Now I’m a respectable married woman, and my days are filed with taking care of my man and learning housewifely skills. (At least this is what Daniel likes to think!)

But until my marriage I was one of a rare breed—a female detective. After my boss was murdered, I inherited his small detective agency and tried to keep it going. It was a precarious way to make a living, never really knowing when I’d get another assignment and be able to pay the rent. Some of the cases were boring and routine—divorce and missing persons and the like, but then there were cases when all too often I found my life in danger. In fact Daniel told me that if I were a cat I’d have used up eight of my nine lives.

I suppose this is true. But I had to think long and hard before I traded a life of excitement for one of security. Until my marriage I lived alone in a small house in Greenwich Village, opposite my best friends, two delightful women who are bohemians and suffragists. Daylight hours would find me involved in industrial espionage, or keeping tabs on the famous Mr. Houdini, or even working for a rich Chinaman to locate his missing bride. After dark it was harder for a woman to be out alone. More than once I’ve been arrested on charges of loitering and prostitution. It seems that no respectable woman should be out alone on a street corner after dark. Just another case of the unfair treatment we women receive at the hands of men. I’ve become a bit of a suffragist myself.

Daniel made me promise to give up my detective agency when we married. That was a wrench, I can tell you.I can’t see myself ever turning into one of those females who hosts tea parties and talks about dressmakers and servants. Luckily we’re off on a belated honeymoon at the end of the week: a rich man has lent us his cottage in Newport Rhode Island. It’s out of season, of course and we’ll be all alone there. I must say I’m looking forward to a seaside escape with my husband and nobody to bother us. But I’m a tad suspicious about why such a powerful man is doing Daniel such a big favor. Such men usually want something in return, don’t they? And I aim to find out what.

You can read more about Molly in HUSH NOW, DON’T YOU CRY, the 11th book in the “Molly Murphy” mystery series. The first book in the series is Murphy’s Law.

Meet the author
Rhys Bowen is the Bestselling Author of the Royal Spyness Series, Molly Murphy Mysteries, and Constable Evens. Awarded the Agatha Best Novel Award and nominated for the Edgar Best Novel Rhys’s titles have received rave reviews around the globe.

Rhys currently writes two mystery series, the atmospheric Molly Murphy novels, about a feisty Irish immigrant in 1900s New York City and the funny and sexy Royal Spyness mysteries about a penniless minor royal in 1930s Britain. Her books made bestseller lists, garnered many awards, nominations, and starred reviews. She was born in England and married into a family with historic royal connections. She now divides her time between California and Arizona. Visit Rhys at http://rhysbowen.com.

Books are available at retail and online booksellers.