Julie Mulhern’s Murder in Manhattan is one of those historical mysteries in which the setting totally steals the show. Written by USA TODAY bestselling author of The Country Club Murders, the crime story in the novel is the first in her new series. It unfolds in 1920s New York, in a city that was vibrant, glamorous, and lawless, all at the same time. A whodunit is expected to entertain, but this investigation is particularly enjoyable as it is framed to explore different venues of the city – from a bustling midtown newsroom to a smoky basement bar in Greenwich Village. It feels invigorating to wander through the meticulously researched world of New York City and its nightlife, presenting the clubs, chatter, journalism, and women who insisted on inserting themselves into the city’s cultural life.
Prohibition in NYC
As an alcohol studies librarian, I was attracted to Murder in Manhattan by the major thread running through the novel – Prohibition – and what it meant for people living through it. Launched with the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act, Prohibition was intended to decrease alcohol consumption, curb vice, encourage morality, and improve public health. Instead, it achieved almost exactly the opposite. New York in the 1920s became the center of a thriving nightlife industry built entirely on the premise that Americans would keep drinking whether the law approved or not. “Speakeasies,” i.e., bars selling illegal booze, multiplied quickly behind false storefronts and hidden basement stairways. New Yorkers of every social class, including politicians, artists, socialites and factory workers, quickly found their way inside.
In this world, the law says no, but the city joyfully says yes. It is illegal to buy or sell alcohol, but it is not illegal have and drink it at home. As a result, respectable citizens can merrily clink their glasses of illicit gin or scotch while denouncing moral decay in public. Police raid certain establishments for show while completely ignoring others. Bars that should have been shut down flourish behind velvet curtains. Bootleggers, from all walks of life, become modern-day entrepreneurs, raking in their illegal gains while fighting over business.
The envy of flappers
Mulhern inserts her protagonist, Freddie (Winnifred) Archer into this contradictory and dangerous world. The character was inspired by Lois Long, one of the first female journalists. Known to readers of The New Yorker as “Lipstick,” she was hired in 1925 to document New York nightlife. Her job description was the envy of flappers: go out every night, drink illegally, dance until dawn, then write about it. Lois Long was famous for chronicling speakeasies with a mixture of delight, irreverence, and sharp critique, all while practicing the very culture she described, including quickly shifting morality and identity.
Freddie seems to share Long’s wit and eye for detail. She refuses to follow the rules society imposed on women in the early 20th century. She writes Gotham Magazine’s nightlife column under a pseudonym “A Touch of Rouge,”while navigating the city’s clubs, bars, theaters, and after‑hours events with confidence and curiosity, considered quite unladylike at that time. Like Long, she is both an observer and participant, an insider who is friendly with every other doorman and bartender, yet remains perceptive enough to document the world around her with precision.
Through Freddie’s perspective, Mulhern also highlights the paradox women faced during this era. The Jazz Age promised women economic independence and liberation with higher hemlines, shorter hair, careers outside the home, and even the right to vote. But equality on the job market lagged far behind. Newsrooms, in particular, were slow to accept women as serious reporters, confining them to fashion or society pages, regardless of their talent or ambition. Challenging traditional gender roles by smoking, drinking, and dating more freely, rebellious Freddie faces resistance from many directions. Editors doubt her abilities, law enforcement underestimates her, and her mother keeps threatening her independence by constantly dangling eligible bachelors before her. Yet Freddie keeps observing and reporting, while finding her way into spaces not created with women in mind.
The devil in the details
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Motor Magazine Summer 1920
The attention to the smallest details, from the way people hailed taxis, to the sounds on the streets at different hours and the exact cost of a cup of coffee or a subway ride, greatly contribute to authenticity of the period and locale. The authenticity of the era is further enhanced by weaving into the story some real celebrities who shaped the city’s cultural life. Freddie crosses paths with writer Dorothy Parker, actress Tallulah Bankhead, comedian Groucho Marx, and even F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. Their presence reminds the reader that New York City in the 1920s was a remarkable place where writers, actors, comedians, and socialites collided (sometimes quite literally) over cocktails that weren’t supposed to exist, such as the Gin Rickey, Sidecar, or Bee’s Knees, all featuring strong spirits masked by sweet mixers, citrus, and cream to hide the taste of low-quality “bathtub gin” or harsh bootleg liquor.
In Murder in Manhattan, the mystery intrigues, but it is the era itself, with its contradictions, famous personalities, and women pushing against boundaries, that makes the novel such a promising first book to establish a new series. In her story set in the 1920s, Mulhern resurrects a city caught between morality and indulgence as well as tradition and modernity. Through the character of Freddie Archer, she honors women who managed to successfully navigate those contradictions with curiosity and tell their stories with style.
Murder in Manhattan, with its prequel novella, Murder by Moonlight, forecasts a great new series for fans of both Miss Fisher’s Mysteries and The Great Gatsby.
Read more about Prohibition from Rutgers Libraries
- Davis, M. (2012). Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition. NYU Press.
- Klatt, W. (2023). Prohibition Chicago.The History Press.
- Lewis, M., & Hamm, R. F. (Eds.). (2020). Prohibition’s greatest myths: the distilled truth about America’s anti-alcohol crusade. Louisiana State University Press.Van Vechten, C. (1930).
- Parties, scenes from contemporary New York life. A. A. Knopf, 1930.
- Volstead Act of 1919. (2017). Great Neck Publishing.
- Zeitz, J. (2006). Flapper a madcap story of sex, style, celebrity, and the women who made America modern. Crown Publishers.
Literary fiction from the same period
- Dos Passos, J. (1925). Manhattan transfer. Harper & brothers. – A landmark literary achievement with stories, of four people living in Manhattan from the 1890s to the late 1920s, presented in a fragments to create new meanings.
- Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). The Great Gatsby. C. Scribner. – This classic is available online from HathiTrust Digital Library Full View Worldwide. The full text of the book is also freely available as an ebook from Project Gutenberg.
- Morrison, T. (1992). Jazz. Knopf. – A historical novel set in 1920s Harlem written by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison.