Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“I grinned stupidly at my whiskey for a few moments. Thinking over my job, which was harrowing. My task, which was nigh impossible. My face, which was mangled. My savings, which no longer existed.”

The Gods of Gotham (Timothy Wilde, #1) by Lyndsay Faye

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Always count on Lyndsay Faye for lots of atmospheric and interesting historical details, and a juicy, emotionally resonant mystery. This wasn’t my favorite of hers, but I’m definitely going to be continuing the series. Timothy Wilde has 400 dollars saved up, and a job tending bar, until a fire devastates his neighborhood, and injures him so severely his face becomes permanently disfigured. It’s 1845, and the NYC police department is in its infancy. There is a potato blight hitting Ireland, and thousands upon thousands of […]

Disturbing parallels to modern-day society

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

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I liked this one well enough, but I can’t say it wasn’t a little bit of a disappointment after liking Faye’s other books so much. The pacing was very uneven here and I wonder if cutting some of the material (the book is about 400 pages) would have helped. There’s a great book in here somewhere, surrounded by too much extra. One thing I really loved? The setting. I don’t think I’ve ever read pre-civil war historical fiction that isn’t pioneer-ish before. This takes place […]

The Gods of Gotham

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Lindsay Faye’s extraordinary The Gods of Gotham is the best novel of its kind since Caleb Carr’s The Alienist. This isn’t a unique observation, it’s emblazoned across the cover of the novel. However I agree with it. I love big city historical fiction so taking a serial killer thriller and setting it in New York City in 1845 is always going to draw my interest. Faye goes a step further by making the origin of the New York City Police Department, and beginning of the […]



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