The Gilded Cage [Paperback]

Troy Soos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Dime-novelist Marshall Webb and reformer Rebecca Davies reunite to take on Tammany Hall and the city's ruthless elite as they unravel a web of corruption in turn-of-the-century New York.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New York City in 1893 comes to vivid life in Soos's second engrossing historical (after 2001's Island of Tears) to feature Rebecca Davies, a child of privilege who's chosen to devote herself to financing and running a home for desperate women with nowhere else to turn, and her beau, Marshall Webb, a freelance reporter for Harper's Weekly who secretly pens dime novels. Davies is an especially sympathetic figure whose empathy for her charges is matched by a steely pragmatism. Two mysteries engage their attention after a young woman turns up at Davies's door, apparently the victim of arsenic poisoning, and Lyman Sinclair, the banker to whom Davies entrusted most of the home's funds, apparently kills himself amid rumors of investment chicanery. Davies enlists the help of Webb, who has been conducting an independent effort to expose the corruption of a post-Boss Tweed Tammany Hall. Webb uncovers a possible link between the banker's death and the omnipresent political machine that governs the city through voter fraud and multiple extortion and bribery schemes. While there are a number of suspects in Sinclair's death, including an acclaimed music hall performer and two of the city's wealthiest and most influential men, the anticlimactic solution is apt to disappoint crime fans. Although this entertaining, fast-paced novel doesn't probe the psychology of late-19th-century murderers as Caleb Carr does, it should appeal to much the same audience as Carr's.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Marshall Webb, writer for Harper's Weekly, determinedly investigates the corrupt practices used by Tammany Hall to run New York City. To please his girlfriend, Rebecca Davies, he also undertakes ferreting out information about the death of a young banker. Rebecca, who continually seeks financial aid for the home for battered women that she runs, asks for help from her brother-in-law, Jacob Updegraff, president of a successful bank. The plots mix together as Webb ends up digging into the sale of Fire Island, once used for the quarantine of the 1893 cholera epidemic, and he pieces together the underhanded practices common to business and banking during the era. He solves the murder, compiles information on Tammany Hall, and pursues his interest in Rebecca even as he negotiates writing another dime novel. Soos immerses readers in the events, lifestyles, and environment of the city with details ranging from dinner menus to styles of shoes, etiquette, morals, and cultural influences. Intermingling of the plots emphasizes the plight of the poor as well as the intensity of the rampant corruption. The romantic tie between Webb and Davies provides a pleasant diversion from the murder and business practices. Soos offers an astute look at the historical, political, and social issues of New York during the Gilded Age, and an intriguing mystery.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575667703
• ISBN-13: 978-1575667706
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,602,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Evocation of 19th Century New York, October 28, 2002

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gilded Cage (Hardcover)

A treat for those who like well crafted historical fiction. We get an aroma of rough and tumble New York of 1893. The squalor, disease, poverty, corruption, cynicism, poll-stuffing. Nothing like our New York, of course, where such things have been banished forevermore.

While reading this, I could not help comparing the atmosphere it evoked with that in the time travel classic "Time and Again" by Jack Finney. That was set in 1870s New York. But close enough, perhaps, from our perspective. The Dakota building figures in both, as do other landmarks. The difference is that Soos's book gives a more in-depth study of the warts and the underbelly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little history lesson, August 20, 2009

By 

Gladys D. Touhey "g. touhey" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gilded Cage (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. Soos keeps you turning the pages to see what is coming next. I could not put the book down until I finished it.