GodsOfGothamFormat: Hardbound
Pub. Date: 2012
Publisher: Penguin Group
Type: Fiction ~ Library Book
Pages: 408
Read: 3/4/2013
Rating: Liked it ♥

This is a historical novel set in the late 1800’s. Timothy Wilde is a bartender until the bar he works at along with downtown Manhattan goes up in flames. The fire leaves him scarred, homeless and penniless, his dreams for the future up in smoke. His brother obtains him a job as a police officer, a brand new police force, because he has no other work he can do he becomes a ‘copper star’. Walking home after a rather vexing day, he runs into, or rather is run into by a little girl who is covered in blood.

After taking her home and cleaning her up, Timothy discovers it is not her blood, here the mystery begins. Timothy has to fight to investigate this mystery to the finish.

The story is written in the first person, from the view of Timothy Wilde, very well written considering he was orphaned at 10 and therefore had no formal education that we know of beyond that aside from reading the Herold daily. Despite that this is a smartly written mystery that follows a well defined plot-line, and yes there is a twist and a realistic ending, in that not everything is wrapped up neat and tidy. According to my friend, who is sort of a NYC history buff, the names and descriptions of the city are historically accurate however I did find one mistake. In the prologue, when Timothy describes the fire that made him an orphan he states that in “In October 1826, in the hamlet of Greenwich Village, a fire broke out in a stable flush adjacent to the home of ….. the conflagration spread to the main house by means of a kerosene explosion.” The only problem being that Kerosene wasn’t invented until 1846 by Abraham Gesner, a Canadian, Kerosene wasn’t available in the US until 1854. Sorry Lyndsay.

This in no way detracted from my enjoyment of this book, still a smartly written enjoyable story.

If you enjoyed reading this review, please like my page on Facebook: Bella Foxx

Posted by on March 10, 2013 in 2013, Crime Fiction, Historical Fiction and tagged , , , , , , .

Comments Off on The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

About Belleza

I got the name Bella because my grandfather called me Suzabell. I use that as a username and my friends on the site started calling me Bella. Thus was born: Bella Foxx's Life, now known as "just a city girl" since I have made the big jump from the country and am now living in the City, UES. I like to make jewelry (check out my blog "Bella is creative" started April 17, 2008) and write. I like to do cross stitch and knit. I sew, I don't really enjoy it, but I enjoy the clothes. I like to read the Bible, books, magazines, online newspaper articles, blogs, jokes on candy wrappers, ads on the subway, billboards, backs of food boxes, lists of ingredients and recipes, cleaning directions, sayings on shirts. I post my reviews on "Just a girl, living, reading, watching, and writing", on Shelfari, Library Thing and Goodreads.. I am allergic to practically everything: grass, trees, weeds, animal dander, dust, mold, wheat, apples, nuts, fish and coconut. The fish and coconut are so serious I carry an Epi-pen and wear a Medic-Alert bracelet. And last but not least. I love the Yankees.

Comments are closed.