Bless the Bride

Set in 1903, Bowen's engaging 10th Molly Murphy mystery (after 2010's The Last Illusion) finds the maverick New York City PI at a major personal turning point. Her impending marriage to Capt. Daniel Sullivan of the NYPD will, at his insistence, mark an end to her sleuthing career, but she can't resist taking on one last case. After a powerful and affluent Chinatown businessman, Lee Sing Tai, asks her to locate a missing piece of valuable jade jewelry, Murphy soon ascertains that the less than forthcoming Lee really wants her to trace the missing bride he recently purchased in China. Searching for Lee's bride while keeping her activities a secret from her fiancé is a considerable challenge for Molly, who also ends up with a murder to solve. Molly's compassion and pluck should attract more readers to this consistently solid historical series.