Seven for a Secret

Publisher's Summary

From Edgar-nominated author Lyndsay Faye comes the next book in what Gillian Flynn calls, "a brilliant new mystery series."

Six months after the formation of the NYPD, its most reluctant and talented officer, Timothy Wilde, thinks himself well versed in his city's dark practices - until he learns of the gruesome underworld of lies and corruption ruled by the "blackbirders," who snatch free Northerners of color from their homes, masquerade them as slaves, and sell them South to toil as plantation property.

The abolitionist Timothy is horrified by these traders in human flesh. But in 1846, slave catching isn't just legal - it's law enforcement.

When the beautiful and terrified Lucy Adams staggers into Timothy's office to report a robbery and is asked what was stolen, her reply is, "My family." Their search for her mixed-race sister and son will plunge Timothy and his feral brother, Valentine, into a world where police are complicit and politics savage, and corpses appear in the most shocking of places. 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.

©2013 Lyndsay Faye (P)2013 Penguin Audio

A Solid Sequel to Gods of Gotham

Seven for a Secret picks up six months after Gods of Gotham, continuing the story of young Timothy Wilde, the sole detective of the "copper stars," the newly-formed New York City Police. Many of the social concerns and gritty realities of New York City first addressed in Gods of Gotham get deeper exploration here, including the graft and corruption behind Tammany Hall, the ethnic tensions surrounding the Irish question, the helplessness of children in a city run by and for adults, and the tenuous nature of the fledgling police force, threatened from without and within by politics and petty hatreds.

At the heart of this novel is the omnipresent threat of "blackbirders," who specialized in kidnapping blacks, whether free citizens or runaway slaves, and sending them to a life of enslavement in the South. When a young biracial woman rushes into Wilde's office and explains that her family has been stolen, the search and the mystery begins.

Just as The Gods of Gotham turned the spotlight on the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudices of the time, Seven for a Secret considers the constant threat that the institution of slavery posed to black Americans, including those in so-called "free" states, and the bigotry built into the U.S. and New York systems. Lyndsay Faye opens every chapter with a poignant and telling quotation from the period that drives her message home.

The recurring characters such as Wilde's "party boss" brother Valentine, landlady Mrs. Boehm, and friend Julius get further development ("Gentle Jim" nearly stole the show), and the new characters are deeply compelling. New York City itself remains the central figure in the story, and Faye's well-researched and piercing gaze lays it open for the reader.

Steven Boyer's able narration lets the prose shine through.

I'm giving this four stars rather than five, because Timothy Wilde's character rang less true for me in this book than in the first. He seems to have forgotten much of his street savvy, and he repeatedly comes across as far too naive for a man who grew up with only a brother for a parent and then tended bar for years. His confusion and bewilderment serves the reader well -- surely this isn't how things are done? oh, so it is -- but it seems odd in the man who was so capable (if in over his head) in the first novel and so at home in his city.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy this novel, because I did, quite thoroughly. I'll be waiting for the next book in this series with anticipation.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

1948 and new NYPD solves mysteries of free blacks

It's 1846 in New York, and the second year of the NYPD. Last year, in book one, "Copper Star" Timothy Wilde, solved murders in a book that gave much of the history of the Irish immigrants and the conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants. It's a good idea to read that book first ( THE GODS Of GATHAM) because many characters are carried through into this book. This book continues with murders associated with run away slaves and free blacks in the north. Once again, chapters are headed by quotes about this topic from authors of those times.

Timothy's spunk, bravery, and creative determination to do what is right by law and by moral justice, gets him into trouble with everyone, including his brother Val, who is big in the Democratic Party and continues to be a scoundrel in every sense of the word. The mistress of the brothel from the first book plays a big role in the atrocities of this book. And there are a couple of children who will tug at you heart with their lives and courage.

This historical mystery is very well documented and extremely well written. The story kept me involved with many twists and turns that I was drawn into as Timothy figured out his fast paced world. I listed to this on Audible and found the narration added much to the feeling and emotions evoked in this story.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Both Harrowing and Compelling

This is another harrowing story by Lyndsay Faye, the follow-up to The Gods of Gotham, which had one of the first New York City "Copper Stars" Timothy Wilde chasing after a ring of child murderers during a wave of Irish immigrants escaping the great potato famine. Faye certainly knows how to write a compelling story and this novel takes place just six month later, in 1846, in and around the same neighbourhood of NYC formerly known as Five Points, notorious for it's squalid conditions*. This time a beautiful young woman charges into Timothy's police station to declare that he family has just been abducted. It turns out the young woman in question is born from a white father and black slave mother, and the plot centres around the "blackbirders", Southerners who snatch free black people from the North and, claiming they are escaped slaves, deliver them to plantation masters for a large fee. This is presumably what happened to Solomon Northup, who later went on to write Twelve Years a Slave, though I've yet to read that book (currently sitting on the massive TBR) . Our good Timothy is of course an abolitionist at heart, and does all he can to find and release Lucy Adams' little son and her sister, but in the process gets tangled in a messy and dangerous political quagmire, not least because the practice of returning escaped slaves to their owners is what the law of the time is designed to enforce. With the best of intentions, he is horrified when he comes to realize that by his very actions which were aimed at protecting those coloured people he'd taken under his wing, he managed to lead them all instead into an awful tragedy. Timothy's older brother Valentine has a large role to play here, as he did in the first book. Heavily involved with the Democratic party, Valentine has pull and is the one who got Timothy a job in 1845 with the newly founded New York police force, when Timothy had lost everything to the fire which burned out a large part of the city, Timothy's workplace and home and savings, and also part of his face. Where Timothy is essentially a good guy with high moral standards, his older brother is completely dissolute; a morphine addict who sleeps around with prostitutes and anyone he takes a fancy to, including men—at a time when such sexual practices were punishable by death; but all this of course makes him a very intriguing character, not least of all because he also happens to be a brawler and a volunteer firefighter, when both brothers have lost their parents to a terrible fire.

I believe we're in for another instalment sometime in future. I was a bit shocked just now when I googled to see if I could find any info on the next book, that several reviews panned the first book unmercifully, including at Bookslut, whose reviewer was of the opinion that it should never have been written in the first place. Along with the Edgar Award committee (The Gods of Gotham was an Edgar Award Nominee in 2013), I obviously don't agree with Sam Ashworth ("Lyndsay Faye's mistake is that she has staged a generic episode of Law and Order: SVU in a setting that demands far more authorial spine and ambition than she is willing to commit."), and where he finds Faye spilled too much of her research onto the page with little discernment, I find on the contrary that the historical details ring true and add much to the story, and especially enjoy her inclusion of quotes and passages from news articles and publications of that period pertaining to abolitionism and the treatment of slaves, as she did in the first book, which focused on the Irish immigrants who were reviled by locals at the time, all of which adds a factual historical dimension to her narrative. But beyond all that, for my money, she writes the kind of compelling story that I just want to keep reading with as few interruptions as possible.

Steven Boyer does a great job with narration.

* Charles Dickens described Five Points in 1842 in his book American Notes for General Circulation:

"What place is this, to which the squalid street conducts us? A kind of square of leprous houses, some of which are attainable only by crazy wooden stairs without. What lies behind this tottering flight of steps? Let us go on again, and plunge into the Five Points."

"This is the place; these narrow ways diverging to the right and left, and reeking everywhere with dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here, bear the same fruit as elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors have counterparts at home and all the world over."

"Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly, like eyes that have been hurt in drunken forays. Many of these pigs live here. Do they ever wonder why their masters walk upright instead of going on all fours, and why they talk instead of grunting?" (From Wikipedia)

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great book! Super talented narrator!

Love the series and narrator. Can't wait to hear the next one. Didn't want to stop listening.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A well written and riveting tale

This is the second book by Lindsaye Faye about the Wilde brothers and the New York City police force in the 1840s. It is informative, grim, moving, and beautifully told. Although some scenes may be of violence, which is absolutely not to my taste generally, there is something about her mid-Victorian use of language which compels you to the scene in your head and keeps the violence in a sort of frame, as a distance. In addition to that, the well-described reality of the recapture of alleged runaway slaves and repatriation to the south makes for a really gripping story. And the nuanced relationship between Timothy, the younger facially-scarred narrator brother and Val, his older bombastic, forceful, drug-addicted brother is likewise compelling. Throw in various hints of sexual tension and some very engaging youngsters and you have a really great book. Very much looking forward to the next in the series.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Wild 14 Hour Journey

Would you consider the audio edition of Seven for a Secret to be better than the print version?

Steven Boyer's performance makes you forget that it's a book, it's as if it's come to life and you're on the outskirts watching the events unfold.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Sequel: Hope there's more to come!

I enjoyed this book just as much a the first one. The story itself is wonderful and I also enjoy hearing about what life was like in the 1840s in New York City. My favorite character in the book is Valentine and the narrator does a fantastic job with his voice. I absolutely love the relationship between Timothy and Valentine. There are a lot of interesting characters in the book. I also found the historical background really interesting as it relates to what was going on leading up to the Civil War.
The end of the book was also satisfying. I am looking forward to another book in the series!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good story, well read

Read The Gods of Gotham first, otherwise the narrator’s overly emotional posturing may be perplexing.

I liked it even more than the Gods of Gotham

Historical fiction is my currently favorite genre. I particularly like the period speech. I loved the story, and will likely listen to 12 years a slave because of this book.

a continuation of something great

narrated as endearingly, a fine continuance from a wonderful writer's tale of the complicated dynamics of 1845 NYC -and perhaps a reminder of what separates us even today as issues of race, class and gender rule our lives.