1909, and the city is crowded. Thrilled spectators line the streets of New York for parades to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River. VANISHED IN THE CROWD looks at the status of women at that time, working hard and getting little credit.

Our detective Molly Murphy Sullivan stars in the latest of the series by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles. If you have not read any, they are standalones, and the recurring cast is small. The details in a historical mystery by Rhys Bowen are always excellent, but I associate her more with the English country manor. New York is the province of her daughter Clare Broyles.

On this occasion, while she copes with her three young children, the house, and the lack of a job, Molly also has no funds. Her husband started work in the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation and has yet to be paid. As Daniel Sullivan is a former policeman, he is not badly off and is sure the money will come through; meanwhile, he is responsible for the security of visiting dignitaries. Molly accepts a detective job from her friends Augusta and Sidney, two slightly scandalous ladies.

A female scientist, Mrs Willa Parker, was supposed to come to stay and has not arrived, so the ladies are concerned. Her husband sets a Pinkerton agent to find his wife, but of course, it’s possible Willa is hiding from her spouse. Molly learns that the Parkers were a research team until they married, whereupon Willa’s name disappeared from papers about polio although she still did a great deal of work. To investigate, Molly in turn has to hire a young woman to mind her children and do some housework. We see that men hired men and women hired women.

At this time the right to vote was becoming important, as wealthy women were highly educated, but it seems to be on every page of the story, perhaps too often for the reader. Other interests of the time include electric street lights, and during the parades, an airplane flown over the city by one of the Wright Brothers. The spectacular episodes are worth reading by themselves, and we get a mystery too.

VANISHED IN THE CROWD will reward the fan of historical settings and women amateur sleuths. In particular, I imagine New York readers will enjoy seeing their city over the several days of celebration.