Molly Murphy Series Novels & Stories

Finally sat down and counted them all because I was trying to figure out what I missed. Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy series has a total of seventeen novels. The first one is 'Murphy's Law', which came out back in 2001, and the last is 'The Last Mrs. Summers', published in 2021. She wraps up Molly's story in that one, so it's a complete set.

I read them all during the pandemic, honestly. The order gets a bit tricky because some omnibus editions combine books, but the core sequence is those seventeen. My local library had them all, but I ended up buying the last few because I couldn't wait. The historical detail in New York City is what kept me going, even when the mysteries got a little predictable.

Never gets old explaining the Molly Murphy order. Start with 'Murphy's Law'—that's where it all kicks off in 1901 New York. The series follows her cases chronologically, so publication order is the intended reading experience. You could technically jump around, but you'd miss the character growth and lingering plot threads.

'Death of Riley', 'For the Love of Mike', and 'In Like Flynn' come next. By 'In Dublin's Fair City', she's back in Ireland, which is a great change of scenery. Honestly, sticking to the list on Rhys Bowen's website is your safest bet, as she's the author and knows the timeline best.

I stumbled upon this series years ago and got hooked, but the order threw me for a loop at first because some lists mix up the original novels and the later anthologies. You want to start with 'Murphy's Law' – it's the origin story for Molly in 1901 New York. Then just go by publication date: 'Death of Riley', 'For the Love of Mike', and so on. I'd skip the anthologies like 'The Molly Murphy Mysteries' until you've read the core novels they collect, or you'll hit major spoilers.

A quick tip – the author, Rhys Bowen, also writes the Royal Spyness series, and there's a tiny bit of stylistic crossover in the early books. The reading order gets really solid around book four or five; the character dynamics with Daniel Sullivan and the historical details about early 20th-century New York become the backbone of the whole thing. My paperback copy of 'In Like Flynn' has a list in the front that I still check sometimes.