Review & Giveaway: Seven For a Secret by Lyndsay Faye

Description (from cover):

‘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 principle, desperate to protect his only brother and to unravel the puzzle before all he cares for is lost.’

My thoughts:

This was simply a beautiful story portraying a dark and frightening period in American history. I love reading about the beginning of the New York Police Department and the way politics ruled the world at that time. Everything was ruled by politics. The crimes that the police could investigated were regulated by the political bosses of the era and if someone got too close to comfort, well they lost their job or were simply taken out of the way. It was a brutal era and Faye does a fantastic job of creating an imaginative world where good tries to prevail in the darkness of society. 
I really enjoyed Gods of Gotham and when I heard that this series was continuing, I was excited. Faye is an exceptional writer and can create a real sense of the historical period in which she is writing. This book focuses mainly on the main issue of that day and time, slavery. While slavery wasn’t so predominate in the North as it was in the South, the North still felt the brutal grasp that slavery had on the nation. Slaves would run away to be free in the North only to be turned in by people who were after reward money or were being chased by slave hunters to return them to the treacherous work on the Southern plantations. This story pinpoints the time that Americans were really starting to pay attention to the atrocities slavery inflicted on people and started leading our country into the era of the Civil War.
I love Timothy’s character. He is the light in all of the darkness. He has a good heart, but sometimes his intentions are misconstrued and he ends up in a puddle of trouble. His brother, Valentine, is quite the character as well and you can help but wait to see what these two brothers will get themselves into. This book featured a lot on vigilance committees and slavery and had a little murder mystery to bind everything together. I absolutely adored this book and found it near impossible to put down. A great read from an astonishing author and I cannot fathom what great tale she will come up with next.

Overall Rating: 5+

Title:  Seven For a Secret
Author:  Lyndsay Faye
Series:  Gods of Gotham #2
Publisher:  Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Publication Date:  September 17, 2013
Pages:  464
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Get It:  Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Disclaimer: This book was given to my by the publisher, through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

2 thoughts on “Review & Giveaway: Seven For a Secret by Lyndsay Faye

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