RHYS: I’m really excited to be celebrating the publication of this book on March 11. It’s called SILENT AS THE GRAVE and it’s Molly Murphy book number twenty-one. How about that! Little did I imagine when I had an idea for a book about a young immigrant woman on Ellis Island back in 2001 that she would not only survive but thrive, marry, have a family and go on to an exciting life.
When other series can get dull and stale, new life was breathed into this one by bringing my amazing daughter Clare on board as my co-writer, and above all as my researcher.
CLARE: I had always been a big fan of this series. I knew my mom had put it on hold as she couldn’t write three books a year and was constantly getting emails asking when the next Molly book was going to come out. So I volunteered to join her and write the books with her.
RHYS: It was a successful partnership from day one, to the extent that I can’t tell you who has written a particular scene in the book. Clare started out with a great feel for Molly’s voice and some brilliant ideas for where the stories should go next.
(interesting side note. At one of our bookstore events a person asked how we two had met. I replied “I made her!”)
Anyway, as I mentioned Clare is the research whiz. Tell them some of the things you do to find our stories.
CLARE: One thing I do is to read the New York Times for every day we are going to write about. I find so many interesting little snippets that make our stories feel real and anchored to the time period as well as bigger stories that drive our plots. For this new book, SILENT AS THE GRAVE I found that Edison had just built a brand-new studio in the Bronx—a building like a large greenhouse that would let in all available daylight. It also had a pool on the roof for water scenes.
Further research showed me that he was in an intense rivalry with the other movie company in New York called Biograph. There had been lawsuits for patent infringements leading to an uneasy truce. However, the owners of Biograph had met mysterious ends: The father of the moving picture camera, Louis Le Prince, had got onto a train and simply vanished… never found. His son had died while duck hunting. Neither case ever explained. Great stuff for a mystery novel.
RHYS: So we decided to get Molly involved in the movies when her friend the flamboyant Ryan O’Hare is asked to act in one directed by DW Griffith for Biograph. They go to watch, the juvenile lead is fired and Molly’s adopted daughter Bridie is asked to take her place. But movie sets in those days are dangerous places to be. All stunts are real. Electricity is not completely tamed. And so a series of accidents make Molly believe that someone is trying to sabotage the picture. Could it be Edison? He was known to pull dirty tricks when necessary.
CLARE: One of the fun things about this book is that we’ve included several real life characters, or slightly fictionalized them for our purposes. Mr. Edison plays himself, so do DW Griffith and a very young Mary Pickford. The Biograph Marvin brothers have become the Martin Brothers for us, and the brilliant Alice Guy, who is listed as a secretary but was the force behind many movie techniques is now Alice Mann.
RHYS: I mentioned before that you discovered movie stunts were highly dangerous in those days.
CLARE: They were. Actors did all their own stunts, like hanging onto the back of moving vehicles. They also used real trains and train tracks, sometimes with disastrous results, as you’ll see in this book.
RHYS: Because this is a Molly Murphy story, and our readers have followed us all this time we wanted to make Molly’s life as a young mother feel real. Since the last book she has given birth to a daughter, Mary Kate, and so she is juggling her commitments to motherhood with her desire to get back into the detecting profession. She knows she’s good at it, but how can she shadow someone when she has to get back to nurse a baby? It must resonate with a good many moms.
CLARE: It certainly was written from experience for both of us. We are all too aware that childbearing and rearing confined most women to the home and prevented them from exploring careers until very recently.
RHYS: The thread of feminism and injustice toward women runs through all our books. In the next one, which we have just turned in, called VANISHED IN THE CROWD, this story line is front and center, with the suffrage movement and female scientists.
We hope you enjoy Molly’s latest adventure and learn a lot about how the early movies were made.
Molly Murphy #21
Retired Detective Molly Murphy Sullivan goes undercover in the next book in the New York Times bestselling series from Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles.
With a newborn and two children, Molly Murphy Sullivan is tackling motherhood. Her husband, Daniel, is off to work in Washington as Easter break begins in New York. Her dear friend and writer, Ryan O’Hara, is shooting a movie, one of the first to involve a real plot and actors. He invites Molly and the children to visit the set and watch the excitement. When one of the actresses is fired, Molly’s adopted daughter, Bridie, is called to replace her in the scene. Turns out she’s a natural and is asked to star in the rest of the film. Molly is skeptical about leaving Bridie alone on set, but her great friends, Sid and Gus, offer to chaperone her.
The movie industry is still experimenting with ways to get the best shot, like pretending to tie Bridie to real train tracks. But soon, their special effects start to malfunction. After a few mishaps where no one is hurt, the special effects turn deadly. With rumors of a feud between studios, Molly believes these malfunctions are sabotage. She is invited to go undercover on set to investigate the burgeoning film war. Once again, Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles deliver an engaging mystery full of vibrant historical details and thrilling escapades featuring one of mystery's most beloved sleuths.
Mystery Historical | Mystery Cozy [Minotaur Books, On Sale: March 11, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9781250890818 / eISBN: 9781250890825]
Rhys Bowen is the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels, including The Venice Sketchbook, nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; The Victory Garden; The Tuscan Child; and the World War II-based In Farleigh Field, winner of the Left Coast Crime Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel and the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel.
Bowen’s work has won over twenty honors to date, including multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. Her books have been translated into many languages, and she has fans around the world, including over 60,000 Facebook followers.
Her Evan Evans series, set in Wales, is currently being reissued by Joffe Books in the U.K.
A transplanted Brit, Bowen divides her time between California and Arizona.
CLARE BROYLES, who is Rhys Bowen's daughter, is a teacher and a musician. She has worked as a composer and arranger in the theater for both Arizona Theater Company and Childsplay and was nominated for an Arizone 'Zoni' theater award. Clare is married to a teacher and they have three children.
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