Spanning a decade, this American Expansion Era novella tells of an Irish emigrant's hopes to escape an entity he blames for the losses of his wives and children, his struggle with self-medicating his scoliosis, and doubts about God's love for himself.1867, New York City, is where Mick Muldoon and his shifty sister Orla live in a sordid tenement on the Lower East Side. Under desperate or fortuitous circumstances, Orla's friend charges them to live in her boarding house, which turns out to be a brothel.Widowed Mick was a tenant farmer in Ireland and sheltered from the seedier side of life. Beyond uncomfortable in the brothel, he's eager to find work and support himself without his sister's aid. Despite the reference letter he presents from Listowel, Ireland, his limp creates scorn about his ability to work with the railroad. Worse than Mick's physical pain is his belief in the curse of an entity only he can see. He immigrated to America partly to escape Mister Death and blames him as the reason he's lost wives and children.Embittered Ed Muldoon, his brother, had deserted his siblings for Canada. He's heard the stories of Irish gangs in New York City, and searches for them. Determined to find Mick, Ed he takes a room in a boarding house near the docks. He heads there in search of Mick and rescues him from an assault. Ed divulges his plans to make amends for his behavior and pay for the purchase of farmland together.Rumors tout wheat farming in Minnesota as the best place to buy cheaper land. The brothers head out in search of a farmer rumored to have a parcel for sale, Declan McGann. Mick discovers he's the object of attraction from McGann's youngest daughter, Shauna. Cassandra McGann is reluctant to accept Mick and is wary of his wives' and children's deaths. The township's bully, Hank Humphrey, picks a fight with Mick. People tolerate Hank as part of their rural community. But Mick hears of Hank's deplorable behavior with Shauna and her friends. He reveals it to the appalled town fathers. They devise a plan to deal with the creep. Mick's protection of Shauna and the town's young women convinces Cassandra McGann that he's dependable. She gives her consent and encouragement to their courtship.Can he risk marriage and family again under Mister Death's curse? Should he risk the idea of a perfect life? Or is he being selfish with his secret hopes of love and acceptance he had in the Old Country? With the outbreak of tuberculosis in the region, Mick despairs. Does God love him enough to guard his family from Mister Death?Muldoon's Minnesota Darling fills in the missing years of Mick's life in the first book of a new three-book historical fiction series, Muldoon's Misfortunes. The first book of three is set for release on December 5, 2023. The Muldoon family have their messy, secret, survival stories. Despite life in a biased era, this quirky, impoverished, Irish Catholic family struggles with their 1860s culture, faith, and determination to conquer it all in America.
