By Lyndsay Faye
Started: August 21
Finished: August 29
The Gods of Gotham is a book that while reading, I couldn’t make up my mind if I actually liked it or not. Turns out I did, because when I found out this was the first in a new book series (The Timothy Wilde series) I was pretty bummed that I had to wait for the new book, Seven for a Secret, to be released in softcover (another weird practice of mine).
Gods combines so many of my favorite things in one neat little novel, it’s almost like the book was written for me specifically. Murder, Victorian-era NYC, a history of the NYC police force, NYC politics, and immigration issues just to name a few. Oh, and there’s also a few characters that, judging by Lyndsay Faye’s age, she had to have based off the amazing Disney musical, Newsies (maybe she didn’t but seriously, the similarities are so extreme that it would be a really strange coincidence if she had never seen the movie).
Gods focuses on Timothy Wilde, a young bartender with a tragic past who hopes to earn enough money to convince the woman of his dreams to run off with him. Those fantasies come to an abrupt end when a huge explosion rocks Manhattan, devouring Tim’s stash of money and permanently disfiguring his face. His older brother, Valentine, lands Tim a job on the newly-formed NYC Police Force, where his beat is on the edge of one of the worst areas of Manhattan. One night, while on patrol, Tim runs across a young girl name Bird….clad only in a thin nightgown, which is completely drenched in blood. Helping Bird leads Tim to a cache of bodies buried just outside the city, and he unwittingly becomes the lead detective in the police force’s first serial murder case.
Honestly, I really love Faye’s writing, it’s engaging and fully captures not only the narrative but the history of New York City and the turbulent political climate at the time. My only compliant is that i completely called the “twists” in the story.
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