Celebrating Molly Murphy

 RHYS BOWEN:  Since this week is celebrating the publication of VANISHED IN THE CROWD, the 22nd Molly Murphy novel, I thought I'd share some Molly pictures with you. One of the things fans like about this series is that it involves real time, real place.  When I first started the series I went to New York and chose a home for my heroine.  It is on Patchin Place and still exists, unchanged.  A few years ago a man emailed me to  say he was now living in Molly's house and sent me pictures.  When Clare and Tim were in New York last year they met him and he invited them inside for a tour.

When I was writing the first books and my knowledge of New York was limited to  tourist areas I went there for every book and walked any streets that Molly would walk. What would she hear, smell, see?  Now I know her part of New York well enough that I could give a guided tour.  I said this jokingly once to the Minotaur publicist. Her eyes lit up. "Molly walking tour of New York???"  Not really, I said hastily.

The nice thing is that most of Molly's New York is still there, hardly changed. You can still walk up Mulberry Street, see the Jefferson Market building, cross the Brooklyn Bridge.  Over the years I have taken plenty of pictures and I'm going to share some now. This is Patchin Place.

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This is looking down Patchin Place toward the Jefferson Market Building In Molly's time it was both a market and a police station with holding cells.

This is the last working gas lamp in New York City.  It's in Patchin Place.

Molly's house on the right.  And some typical houses from the neighborhood. Molly lived briefly in a fancy house like this on Fifth Avenue.

And finally the pharmacy around the corner that was open and working in Molly's day.  I love how I continually find little gems like this!

I hope you've enjoyed this little tour. Next time you go to New York check out Molly's old haunts!

And writers, how important is it to you to visit the sites you are writing about and know them well?

NEWSFLASH; I've been given some free copies of the Audible version of the book.  If you'd like to be in a drawing for one, email me at Authorrhysbowen@gmail.com. i'll pick some names from a hat and give you instructions on how to claim the audio version.