She Said She Was In The Family Way

The Family Way, the twelfth entry in Rhys Bowen's bestselling Molly Murphy series, will delight fans and win over newcomers with its elegantly plotted mystery, atmospheric historical detail, and vivid characters. Molly Murphy—now Molly Sullivan—is a year into her marriage, expecting her first child, and confined to the life of a housewife. She's restless and irritable in the enforced idleness of pregnancy and the heat of a New York summer in 1905. So when a trip to the post office brings a letter addressed to her old detective agency asking her to locate a missing Irish serving maid, Molly figures it couldn't hurt to at least ask around, despite her promise to Daniel to give up her old career as a detective. On the same day, Molly learns that five babies have been kidnapped in the past month. Refusing to let Molly help with the kidnapping investigation, Daniel sends her away to spend the summer with his mother. But even in the quiet, leafy suburbs, Molly's own pending motherhood makes her unable to ignore these missing children. What she uncovers will lead her on a terrifying journey through all levels of society, putting her life—and that of her baby—in danger.

'She said she was in the family way' examines the subject of pregnancy and infancy in Ireland from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. It draws on exciting and innovative research by early-career and established academics, and considers topics that have been largely ignored by historians in Ireland. The book will make an important contribution to Irish women's history, family history, childhood history, social history, crime history and medical history, and will provide a reference point for academics interested in themes of sexuality, childbirth, infanthood and parenthood.

Generations of the Maguire family have survived the odds through sheer hard won resilience navigating world and life-changing events while Mary struggles with her own challenges passed on in the family way. As a girl made fatherless aged only five months old at the beginning of a new century, Mary Maguire was brought up to be a good Catholic girl, or so Annie, her Irish Famine surviving granny thought. Her mammy Caitlin erred a little too, as a burdened woman will do when coping with nine children proves too much. With sisters Nora and Cait carrying on the family baby-making tradition beyond being pioneer female strikers and brothers Frank, Bernie, Patrick and Seamus conscripted into WWI with some not returning and others not as they were when they left, Mary feels cast adrift. The thing was, the priest wasn't as God-fearing as he claimed; a family member couldn't take no for an answer and the older Irish rebel uncle never even asked the question. On finding herself in a tricky situation, Mary discovers a way to fight back through her heritage from the old country with Cunamm Na mBan in 1920's Glasgow before winding her way from Scotland to America and back to Ireland where it all began to find what was lost and understand what we can never lose.

The story of the most prolific African American photographers in North America.