New Yorker Molly Murphy is starting to think the cards are stacked against her. She'd like to be a private detective, but she's finding all too many places in turn-of-the-century New York City where women are not welcome, a fact that's as frus-tra-ting to her fiery Irish pride as it is to her rapidly emptying pocketbook. Then two business opportunities pop up simultaneously. An aristocratic family in Dublin fears their daughter has fled to the new world with her unsavory boyfriend, and they hire Molly to track the two down and send the young woman back home. Before she has time to consider her good luck, she's asked to go undercover in the garment business and investigate a potential case of industrial espionage. A vivid evocation of New York's teeming immigrant community at the turn of the century, For the Love of Mike is the triumphant third installment in Rhys Bowen's Agatha Award-winning series.

• historical mysteries