Book Review: For the Love of Mike: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen

For the Love of Mike by Rhys Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For the Love of Mike was actually a really good book. I went in with worry and low expectation, but then as I read, it was actually quite delightful. I loved every bit of the book. I was prepared for the women’s suffrage movement, when Molly went to work for Mostel’s, then Lowenstein to find out who has been stealing Mr. Mostel’s designs, and also working another case to find where Katherine was, along with a man named Michael Kelly.

There is also a bit of a love triangle in the book between Molly, Jacob and Daniel. I felt like Daniel was trying to get Molly to fall in love with him and demand to be with him, but she stood her ground, which I liked SO MUCH, and kept bringing up his fiancee. And when Molly started hanging out with Jacob, OH NO, Daniel didn’t like that. He kept trying to get Molly to see that she didn’t love Jacob, and she loved Daniel. But once again, I find that I really like Molly, said, very nicely, hell to tha nah, I’m not gonna fall in love with you, not gonna be with you, and if I want to be with Jacob and marry him, then I’ll marry him while you’re with your fiancee.

With the case of someone stealing Mr. Mostel’s designs, I actually enjoyed this one. You get to read about Molly working in TERRIBLE conditions (like really fucking terrible) and then Seedy Sam barking out all types of stuff and even turning the clock forward a bit just to tell them that they’re late and all that, WHICH IS BULLSHIT. And then she went to Lowenstein’s, where it’s much worse??? And she almost got raped by the disgusting forman (who’s name I don’t give a flying fuck to remember) and thank god for her friend to stay over and catch him before he did anything else.

Then Molly joined a women’s union group and did a walkout and stood in front of Lowenstein’s sweatshop, demanding rights as they should, along with better pay and getting off early for Shabbat, and there was a bit of a ruffle outside of Lowensteins-turns out, it was some hired people who were trying to get the women to go back in and do their work, and well…it didn’t work, because Molly got into a fight with them, giving them what they wanted, and spent a night in jail..woof. Jacob got her out, and the two had dinner with his mother and father, who don’t speak English, but it was okay.

Then when the women won and got their demands and went back to work. Molly, though fired, went back to Mostel’s and worked there a little bit more, only to discover that the conditions was worse, and that the woman she was looking for was hiding in the basement of the shop. Then the sweatshop got caught on fire, thanks to the jackass that decided to lock them up when they were about to walk out and the poor, scared girl knocked over one of the stoves. Bravely, with Katherine’s help, the women escaped the burning building, and Molly found out it was one of the women that worked there stealing the designs of Mr. Mostel.

After she told Mr. Mostel who did it and was paid one hundred dollars for her work, she went back to her new apartment to find a note by Michael Kelly, telling her to come alone because he kidnapped Bridie. She was about to head out and go, but the Katherine stopped her and the two went alone to face Michael. When they got to where Michael wanted to meet up with Molly, Birdie was on a very unsturdy catwalk. The three of them got into a tussle and the police showed up and saved them by shooting Michael.

At the end, Molly almost made money, she shut down Daniel YET AGAIN, and she and Jacob became friends. All good for a lady investigator! And it was a really good book that surprised me.

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