Seven For A Secret

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The abolitionist Timothy is horrified by these traders in human flesh. Timothy finds himself caught between power and principles, desperate to protect his only brother and to unravel the puzzle before all he cares for is lost. Hardcover , pages. Published September 17th by G. Putnam's Sons first published Timothy Wilde , Valentine Wilde. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Seven for a Secret , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Mar 04, Jayson rated it it was ok Shelves: Feb 26, Trudi rated it really liked it Shelves: I gushed over Lyndsay Faye's The Gods of Gotham , her debut foray into the dark heart of New York City and the violent and inauspicious origins of its first police force -- the copper stars.

In its pages Faye strikes a remarkable balance between the thrilling and cerebral aspects of a good mystery and blends it with the rich detail and sumptuous atmosphere of the best historical fiction. More than the mystery and the historical details, what really makes this series a great read is Faye's co I gushed over Lyndsay Faye's The Gods of Gotham , her debut foray into the dark heart of New York City and the violent and inauspicious origins of its first police force -- the copper stars.

More than the mystery and the historical details, what really makes this series a great read is Faye's colorful cast of characters. Timothy Wilde is flawed and sympathetic. For all of his bravado and prickly self-righteousness, I have such a soft spot for Tim because I know how much room there is for him to grow into the man he's supposed to be.

But who I was really excited to get more of this time around is Tim's drinking, whoring, brawling older brother Valentine. Val is one of the most scurrilous, scandalous, lovable characters I've had the pleasure of reading in a long, long, time. While Tim is over-serious and pining after a woman he can't have, Valentine is a man of huge appetites and humor, chasing after his demons with alcohol and drugs and any warm body he can find to curl up next to.

The two brothers together are a yin and yang of contradiction and chemistry. A study in the unbreakable bonds of brotherly love and all the hate, hurt and simmering resentment contained therein. The things my brother and I don't say could pave over the Atlantic Ocean. I am a huge fan of Faye's prose style as well, but I can see how some readers might be put off as at times it does flirt with superfluous and 'purple'. But I lick all that historical detail up as if it were buttercream icing and it is a marvel to me how she can write about the most despicable, tragic things in such a beautiful, luscious way.

I don't think the mystery was quite as strong in this second book as in Gotham , and the ending felt a tad drawn out twice I thought I had read the final sentence only to have to keep turning the pages. But other than those quibbles, this is a very strong second book in a series that I cannot wait to get more of.

I love this series. The author immerses us in the time period, gritty and ugly and seamy elements and all. Timothy Wilde is an incredibly engaging and sympathetic narrator. He has a powerful sense of justice, but at the same time, it's impossible for him not to be a little cynical, if not very aware that lofty ideals mean nothing in the world in which he inhabits. Timothy is permanently scarred both physically and emotionally by the events of the 1st book, The Gods of Gotham , and he's slowly fin I love this series.

Timothy is permanently scarred both physically and emotionally by the events of the 1st book, The Gods of Gotham , and he's slowly finding his place in life, in a life without his true love, Mercy Underhill. Timothy is also trying to revise his opinion of his brother, Valentine, a very complicated--and in his own way endearing to this reader--character. For far too many years, he despised this older brother and had no respect for him.

But in that weird way of families, he also loved him. Now he has to integrate both of those feelings, and realize that Valentine's bad habits are an aspect of his personality that he just has to deal with, like it or not. As Timothy's latest investigation puts him in great danger, he will realize just how much an ally and protector his brother is. One of the reasons I like this series so much is the incredible lens of American history it brings to the table.

Readers who have an interest in the city of New York and the tarnished history of the corrupt city government, think Tammany Hall, will appreciate how the author has integrated this story. Valentine is high up in the Democratic party, which is why he holds the enviable post as a station head and also the head of one of the firefighter units. He's viewed as a saint to the Irish immigrants because he helps them to get work and food in exchange for voting for the Democratic candidates.

The storyline resonated deeply with me, as it deals with slavery and the practice of capturing free blacks in the north and selling them into slavery. Timothy's best friend is a free man of color, Julius, who is a member of The Committee of Vigilance, an organization that helps to protect blacks from the blackbirders a name for the slave-catchers.

Julius comes to get his help when a young woman of color's family is kidnapped. Timothy is eager to help, his sense of justice appalled at the practice of slavery and the fact that blacks aren't even safe in New York. Of course, he's seen for himself that there are many terrible ways that racism that impact his beloved city.

His assistance in the matter, gets him and his brother involved in a case that grows even darker as the layers pull away to reveal corruption that goes deep into the heart of the city and state government. The aspects of slavery and racial injustice really affected me, as much as the child prostitution and murder in the first book.

The author is not shy about revealing these dark themes that are real parts of the history of our country. When Julius faces the slave-catchers without any real help in the legal courts, I don't think I even breathed the whole time. There are aspects of this book that are downright heartbreaking and bring home how profoundly wrong slavery was and the deep-seated racial prejudice that is a huge part of American history and current events even today.

This book is fantastically narrated, and I hope that my library gets the last book in the series. I can't imagine not being able to listen to it, because now the narrator has cemented himself in my mind in his voicing of Timothy and his brother. He has many traits that admire in a character and a person, to be honest. But I also love Valentine, despite his corrupt ways.

His definitely a bad boy kind of character you can't help but fall for.

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I had to give this five stars because there is so much to love about this book. I definitely recommend this series, and if you can get it on audiobook, please don't miss that opportunity. Aug 07, Mary rated it it was ok Shelves: A disappointing second installment. Timothy Wilde seemed much more street-smart and competent in The Gods of Gotham , and the love-hate relationship between Timothy and his brother Valentine was over-used here.

As with The Gods of Gotham, I found the tough-minded, politically savvy Valentine with all his personal demons much more interesting than the underdog Timothy. Timothy spent too much time pining for Mercy Underhill, and the way his thoughts were written continually reminded me that he was A disappointing second installment. Timothy spent too much time pining for Mercy Underhill, and the way his thoughts were written continually reminded me that he was a male character written by a modern woman.

Jun 27, Benjamin Thomas rated it it was amazing Shelves: He's a proven asset now, an excellent solver of crimes and finder of missing things, and has therefore been relieved of the necessity of walking a beat as a "rounder" in Ward 6. Rather, he is a sort of special "detective" although that term won't be Six months after the events of The Gods of Gotham , where-in we get to participate in the founding and very early days of the New York City Police Department NYPD , we catch up with young Timothy Wilde, a "Copper Star" in the new police force.

Rather, he is a sort of special "detective" although that term won't be in use for another years and works on specific cases for the Chief of Police, George Washington Matsell. Tim Wilde shows off his detective skills early on but the major case of the novel surrounds the very historically accurate issue of kidnapping free blacks in the North and selling them back to the South as escaped slaves.

This novel is an outstanding second novel in what I surely hope will be a lengthy and successful series. The first in the series, The Gods of Gotham, was an excellent novel as well, but at times, it seemed as if the author was trying a little too hard to craft the perfect novel. Her writing style was a bit more "literary" in that first book and, indeed, it was nominated for a whole host of prizes. But it seemed that the parts of the story were crafted together a bit too neatly. This time around, she seems much more relaxed with her characters; she's come to know them well and she lets them play on her stage.

And once again, her stage is phenomenal! All the color and vibrancy of the first book is here still, the sounds and smells of the population-exploding New York in the midth century, the language of the streets and criminals, and the corruption of the politics Wow what a smorgasbord of characters. Many historical figures populate the story and take active roles in it, including members of the New York Committee of Vigilance, founded in for the purpose of preventing the kidnapping of men, women, and children to be sold into slavery.

The fictional characters could not be more multidimensional. I had noted in the first book how Tim's brother, Valentine Val was actually a bit more interesting than Tim and had wished that he had been afforded more stage time in that story. I got my wish this time around and his presence is delightful not to mention critical to the plot. But the author is careful not to let him upstage our main character, Tim. This, my friends, is the sign of a maturing author. Indeed, every aspect of good story telling is present here: And especially important for an historical novel The historical aspects are downright interesting; she writes them in such a way that made me want to look up further information about them.

Tell me that's not a good sign.

A very enjoyable read. I'm ready for the next book in this series. View all 3 comments. Mar 16, Ioana rated it really liked it Shelves: The second installment in Lyndsay Faye's excellently detailed, historically accurate series about the founding of the police force in antebellum NYC is a story about the illegal slave trade and systematic kidnapping of free blacks to be sold to the South for profit. Having just finished a history of the period see New York Exposed: Usua The second installment in Lyndsay Faye's excellently detailed, historically accurate series about the founding of the police force in antebellum NYC is a story about the illegal slave trade and systematic kidnapping of free blacks to be sold to the South for profit.

Usually I find that historical mysteries stray from politics, religion, and other "controversial" topics in order to broaden their appeal, but often this is a disservice to the era of their setting, because these issues are exactly what "set the tone" of the period. Fayes understands this, and does not shy away from depicting antebellum NYC in all its corrupt, political, zealous, squalid splendor. She does not proselytize, but rather brings the story into focus through believable characters that we come to love, despite their flaws, and perhaps even despite their perpetuation of a corrupt system.

The rest of my review is basically the same as for 1, Gods of Gotham , so I will not reprint. In short, the writing is beautiful, the characterizations are a bit overdone at times, the book is definitely "genre" fiction so most likely will not appeal to all readers, and so on. Aug 06, Wolf rated it liked it.

bahana-line.com: Seven for a Secret (A Timothy Wilde Novel) (): Lyndsay Faye: Books

It is clear that the author, Lyndsay Faye, has real talent. The writing is sometimes excellent. Too often, however, it veers into being irritating, overly worked or overly arch. The idea behind the novel, the way the law was used in the mid-nineteenth century US to return runaway black slaves to the American south and how certain slave catchers were none to fussy about whether they collected freemen or runaways, is an excellent one. Her central po 'Seven For A Secret' is good enough to disappoint. Her central policeman character, with strong abolitionist tendencies but trapped in a world where the kidnap of black men and women is legally sanctioned, a good one to explore the moral issues that this raises.

But sadly, due to a number of issues, the book too often misses its mark. Part of the problem is that we are about pages in to the novel before the main plot really begins to motor, with an unexpected dead body turning up, apparently incriminating our main characters.

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It is often a sign that an author realises that the start of a book is weak when there is a prologue. Here we get one that hints at the beginning of the main story before we go back to deal with a sub-plot about the theft of a painting which is largely divorced from the rest of the book and could have been usefully cut. The lack of plot line to push us forward gives the reader time to puzzle over other aspects of the story and its telling which might be best left not thought about. Early on, for example, the policeman central character, and narrator of the story, meets an Englishman acting as a butler in a New York household.

He is 'doing his level best London accent' but the narrator immediately identifies him as coming from Bristol. That might work as an incidental detail for an American audience, but it seems hard for anyone familiar with the West Country inflected Bristol accent with its habit of sticking an 'L' on the end of vowels to see that mistake being made or, if the family hiring the man are genuinely so tone deaf to accents, why the butler felt the need to disguise the accent in the first place. Given that the idea of a received pronunciation 'posh' accent was largely a nineteenth century invention, would anyone even have cared?

Another irritation, for me at least, was too often the style of writing. Whilst sometimes very well told, it too often becomes affected. Lyndsay Faye is clearly influenced by the dry laconic hardboiled style of detective fiction created by masters such as Raymond Chandler and much aped since then. The narrator's descriptions are peppered with witty comments in this style. Very often, I wished he and Faye would give them a rest.

Too often the writing and its grasp on character resembles something that we might encounter in creative writing workshops or American indie films but not real life, as I've encountered it. At one stage, the narrator policeman tells a character, from whom he is taking a statement, "'I detest writing police reports,' I admitted It's as if - I can't explain it. As if when I officially document them, they have to stay with me. Or I give them permanence, or I know it doesn't make sense.

I've met police officers and I've met victims of crime and none of them have ever suggested they've felt like that. It makes even less sense the more one thinks about it: It does have to be admitted that, once the main story gets going, the book improves greatly. The various elements of mid-nineteenth century New York, from machine politics to Irish refugees to corrupt policemen are artfully handled, neatly sketched, none outstaying their welcome and all serving a thoroughly entertaining story.

By that stage I had been close to giving up, however. The mystery itself and its resolution are a bit disappointing. An acute reader is likely to have guessed one more significant revelations before the central character. The explanation for the mysterious death, that powers the plot of the later two-thirds of the book, is best not considered too closely: That said, it would be wrong not to acknowledge that the later part of the book is entertaining. All in all, a generous three stars. Jun 27, Barb added it Shelves: I found 'Seven For a Secret' available through the Vine Program and thought it sounded like a great story.

I soon realized it was the second book in a new series, of course I wanted to read the series in order. I read 'The Gods of Gotham' immediately before starting 'Seven For a Secret' I thought that would be the best way to keep the characters vivid in I found 'Seven For a Secret' available through the Vine Program and thought it sounded like a great story. I read 'The Gods of Gotham' immediately before starting 'Seven For a Secret' I thought that would be the best way to keep the characters vivid in my memory. Unfortunately reading the two books in succession made the differences between them stark and glaring.

In 'The Gods of Gotham' Timothy Wilde is a clever young man who struggles with his feelings for his older brother, he's conflicted by equal parts admiration and resentment boarding on loathing. He's spent many years working in a pub and is skilled at discerning personal habits, geography and occupation from the way customers are clothed, groomed and speak.

When he becomes a copper star, one of the first policemen in NYC, he puts his powers of observation and reasoning to use, solving crime and apprehending thieves. He's a wonderful character and a protagonist I was looking forward to following through a series of books. I felt the same way about his brother, Valentine, who is a very different character, he struggles with his own inner demons but is all the more interesting because of them.

In 'the Gods of Gotham' the friction between them was lively, clever and believable and it added to the depth of the story. The first difference I noticed between the two novels was Tim's personality and his relationship with Valentine. Tim isn't at all street savvy at the beginning of this book. When we leave him at the end of 'Gotham' he's sharp, clever, quick. The Tim that greets us in 'Seven' seems like he may have suffered from a concussion or a brain injury.

He's somewhat oblivious to the politics and inner workings of the city. He was fascinated by the pawn shops for instance. He also frequently says things that only an oaf would say, and is surprised by things that should have been known and understood, like the other copper stars being envious of him. His relationship with his brother is also less realistic and more like a comedy routine peppered with unlikely insults, ludicrous observations and inane dialogue.

At one point Tim tells Val to bugger off, then says the whole Democratic Party can bugger off, then asks why they are talking about the Party? It reminded me a little of Abbot and Costello, who are wonderful but between these characters this kind of silliness is out of place. This new Tim also has a flair for the melodramatic when expressing his feelings and describing the world he lives in.

As well as a tendency to describe things in the superlative; the world being splintered to pieces, his being splintered into slivers of ash, his being pulled from the edge of mental ruin, moth holes dotting the heart and mind, hating himself for accidentally tearing out a tendril of someone's hair.

This wasn't the Tim I got to know and love in 'Gods'. Even with the many differences in the writing and characterizations I would have continued reading.

MORE BY LYNDSAY FAYE

The issue that was make or break if for me was that several pivotal points in the story didn't hold up to scrutiny. I don't want to give too much away but there was a choice that was made which defied logic and had serious consequences that could have been avoided with a small dose of common sense. Later a character takes care of the aftermath in a way that wasn't very believable and the way the story progresses from there feels very off track. Another thing that I found distracting was the recapping of the story at various points when the story itself wasn't very complicated and not a whole lot had happened yet.

Overall I was disappointed by this second installment in the series. I'm not sure if I will try this author again but I'm glad that I found and read 'The Gods of Gotham' which I really enjoyed and would recommend. View all 8 comments. Oct 27, Albert rated it really liked it. Lyndsay Faye won me over with her novel The Gods of Gotham. A mystery crime thriller set in early New York prior to the Civil War.

Seven for a Secret is the second novel in what I hope will be a long series of tales. He is on shift at the station when a disheveled and distraught beautiful young woman staggers in crying out that she Lyndsay Faye won me over with her novel The Gods of Gotham. He is on shift at the station when a disheveled and distraught beautiful young woman staggers in crying out that she has been robbed. Most would say it was luck's, or Fate's. But I can't help but think of her voice that way now.

The way it tugged a man, could wrench a steamer off course into cruel shoals. They'd gone pale as slate. With that Timothy is plunged into the hidden world of slave catching. Not only was kidnapping free black men, women and children in the North under the guise of re-capturing slaves legal, it was considered part of law enforcement. The accused slave would then have to prove themselves to be freemen or be taken back South to be sold.

Lucy Adams is a beautiful young woman whose father was white and mother black. She passes mostly as a white Northern woman but under closer scrutiny she cannot hide her heritage. Coming home she finds her home raided and her sister and son taken.

She doesn't know where to turn and asks the newly formed NYPD to help. They cannot because no law has been broken.

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But young officer Timothy Wilde feels a moral obligation to help Lucy and throws himself headlong into a cesspool of lies and human trafficking. His fellow officers will turn on him as well as the political climate of the time. Still he forges on to find the stolen family only to find a much larger and crueler scheme unfold. Surrounded by the players from Gods of Gotham, Tim battles for the moral sense of what is right and wrong.

And finds himself on the wrong side of the law he is sworn to uphold. An extremely well written second novel featuring the young Copper Star Timothy Wilde. Feb 18, Ellen rated it really liked it. I seem to be in the minority among reviewers here, because I liked "Seven for a Secret" better than "Gods of Gotham. I think the near lack of the Mercy Underhill plotline helped things along for me. Timothy does tend to bumble around making an ass of himself, but he does it in as self-aware a way as possible. I find that quality believable and sympathetic - I'm not sure how one is supposed to become complete I seem to be in the minority among reviewers here, because I liked "Seven for a Secret" better than "Gods of Gotham.

I find that quality believable and sympathetic - I'm not sure how one is supposed to become completely sharp and streetwise if you lack a certain brashness and confidence. I also really appreciated the fact that Timothy and the others get things wrong once in a while. I am rather glad to have this one back at the library, as I started mentally belting out Counting Crows every time I saw the cover. Sep 10, Paul rated it it was amazing Shelves: Seven for a Secret is historical fiction and mystery writing at its finest. Strong characters, great detail, and a plot that both keeps you guessing and feeds into sweeping historical concerns makes for a serious page turner…and will leave you with a hankering for a third installment.

Read EditorialEyes for book reviews mainly literary fiction with a sprinkling of sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, historical, and YA , author interviews, and literary event posts. I've been in publishing in one form or another since , from a tiny literary magazine to freelance editing and proofreading to a mid-size academic publisher to a big-name fiction publisher. View all posts by Dee EditorialEyes. I finally got around to reading this book two years late over my vacation last week. It was kind of perfect to gorge myself on this rich story while also gorging myself on Christmas cookies.

Faye somehow managed to educate me on the ickiest aspects of what those times were like without leaving me feeling demoralized and heavy. Do we know if another Tim Wilde book is in the works? You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.

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