In this opening novel of the Molly Murphy series, the biggest mystery is … how long will the coincidences keep occurring in Molly’s favor?

Molly Murphy accidentally kills a man and flees Ireland at the spur of the moment. She manages to catch a boat to England where miraculously she is taken in by an Irish woman with two small children. They are leaving tomorrow for America to join her husband.  However, the woman is unable to board the ship due to suffering from TB so … she asks Molly to take her place, pretend to be her and take the children to America for her. (Coincidence #1).

She finds herself on a boat to America caring for two children she doesn’t know. Once she reaches New York a murder happens at Ellis Island and Molly soon becomes a suspect. Realizing the NYC police will not do it, she begins to investigate in order to clear her name, before she gets arrested, or worse, shipped back to Ireland.

Molly is a fun character, fiercely independent, sassy and headstrong.  I understand that this is meant to be a “cozy-styled” mystery, with a good bit of romantic flare, but the sheer number of times that Molly meets the exact person she needs to, or happens to hear the exact information she was looking for … got to be quite humorous. The fact that the book won an Agatha Award, although the mystery is less compelling than the rest of the story, makes me wonder about the standards of the award. 

All in all, though, Murphy’s Law is a fun book. I read it in two sittings.