The Gods of Gotham (Timothy Wilde, Bk 1)
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Helpful Score: 6
Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
I have read a number of books over the last few years about New York City, at different periods. This book takes place in 1845 and deals with the founding of the police department, and the beginning influx of Irish Catholics. No student of history however casual will be surprised by what awaited the Irish immigrants. Not only poor, but uneducated, and the fact that they followed a religion that was deeply suspect as far as the native born Protestant Americans were concerned, made them easy targets for all sorts of abuses.
Timothy Wilde is a newly minted beat cop, on the newly minted NYC police department. After being injured and losing everything in the great fire of 1845, his brother a political insider gets him a job as a cop. He isn't excited about this and less than thankful to his brother Valentine. Theirs is a complicated relationship, orphaned at 16 and 10 respectively Vals wildness and choice of profession has angered Tim. Tim has only been on the job a short time but has decided to quit, after attending to a woman who strangled her 6 month old infant, for lack of milk. While walking home after his 16 hour shift (which paid him 10 dollars a week,) Tim runs into a little girl, who is about 10 years old dresses in a night gown and covered in blood. Wondering what to do with the obviously traumatized girl, he is just step from his newly rented rooms above the bakery of Mrs. Boehm. He in his mind is no longer a cop, so he takes her home to decide what he will do with her. "They will rip him apart" she says... Tim goes back to work if only to investigate the girl whom he realizes is a child prostitute, soon he finds 19, 20, 21 dead children most of them prostitutes, who is killing the Irish children and why is no one looking for them? It seems that only Tim and his chief want to know.
I loved this book! The characters and NYC of this period are so interesting. It is told in first person but is done so well. The corruption of the politicians, the bigotry against the Irish Catholics, the fact that the Irish survived and thrived in this country is a wonder. This is a book to read and I am not kidding!
4 stars.
I have read a number of books over the last few years about New York City, at different periods. This book takes place in 1845 and deals with the founding of the police department, and the beginning influx of Irish Catholics. No student of history however casual will be surprised by what awaited the Irish immigrants. Not only poor, but uneducated, and the fact that they followed a religion that was deeply suspect as far as the native born Protestant Americans were concerned, made them easy targets for all sorts of abuses.
Timothy Wilde is a newly minted beat cop, on the newly minted NYC police department. After being injured and losing everything in the great fire of 1845, his brother a political insider gets him a job as a cop. He isn't excited about this and less than thankful to his brother Valentine. Theirs is a complicated relationship, orphaned at 16 and 10 respectively Vals wildness and choice of profession has angered Tim. Tim has only been on the job a short time but has decided to quit, after attending to a woman who strangled her 6 month old infant, for lack of milk. While walking home after his 16 hour shift (which paid him 10 dollars a week,) Tim runs into a little girl, who is about 10 years old dresses in a night gown and covered in blood. Wondering what to do with the obviously traumatized girl, he is just step from his newly rented rooms above the bakery of Mrs. Boehm. He in his mind is no longer a cop, so he takes her home to decide what he will do with her. "They will rip him apart" she says... Tim goes back to work if only to investigate the girl whom he realizes is a child prostitute, soon he finds 19, 20, 21 dead children most of them prostitutes, who is killing the Irish children and why is no one looking for them? It seems that only Tim and his chief want to know.
I loved this book! The characters and NYC of this period are so interesting. It is told in first person but is done so well. The corruption of the politicians, the bigotry against the Irish Catholics, the fact that the Irish survived and thrived in this country is a wonder. This is a book to read and I am not kidding!
4 stars.
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