Monday, September 15, 2014

The Gods of Gotham/Lyndsay Faye/414 pages

Set in New York in the 1850s, this is the story of Timothy Wilde who was one of the first
"copper stars" or police officers in the newly forced police force. His older brother, Valentine, is politically connected and himself a volunteer firefighter and pulls strings to get his brother on the force after a huge fire burns down not only Tim's residence but also his place of employment. The police force is untested and unwelcomed by part of the community as the beginnings of a police state. Almost immediately, Tim gets pulled into a murder investigation that delves into the seediest part of the city.


Eventually, the story gets moving, but the first 55 pages are excruciatingly slow. When Faye finally around to the plot, the writing gets more economical. Every so often, she falls back into too many words to tell the story, but then she gets back on track. Faye did a lot of research, and I can appreciate that, but I place the story above the setting, so this book sometimes drags for me.

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