Customer Reviews

In the Shadow of Gotham

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Stefanie Pintoff's "In the Shadow of Gotham" takes place in 1905. The narrator, thirty-year old Detective Simon Ziele, left the New York City Police Department five months earlier to work in the tranquil village of Dobson, New York. It comes as a shock when Simon and his boss, Joe Healy, are summoned to a grisly crime scene, where a twenty-five year old woman named Sarah Wingate has been slashed and bludgeoned to death. Sarah had been a graduate student in mathematics at Columbia University after completing her undergraduate studies at Barnard. She had also been an outspoken advocate for women's rights.

Although Joe and Simon ask for help from the Yonkers police department, no obvious suspects come to light. Their only clues are a locket found near the crime scene and a cryptic telegram from someone named Alistair Sinclair, who claims that he has important information. Sinclair turns out to be a fifty-two year old Columbia Law School professor and criminologist living in New York City. At his Center for Criminological Research, the wealthy Sinclair conducted a study of Michael Fromley, who had a history of assault, battery, petty theft, and attempted murder. This individual admitted to having fantasies about killing women in precisely the way that Sarah was murdered. Could Fromley be the perpetrator of this heinous crime? Simon teams up with Alistair and his widowed daughter-in-law, Isabelle, to locate Fromley and interview everyone who might have relevant information about the case.

Stefanie Pintoff makes the most of her knowledge New York City's history, geography, and culture at the turn of the century. She provides local color about the corruption in Tammany Hall, the General Slocum steamship disaster in 1904 that changed Simon's life, the journalists who exploited every scandal, and the activism of women who tried to improve their status in society. Pintoff also refers to fingerprinting, crime scene photography, and behavioral profiling, practices that were in their infancy at the time.

Unfortunately, the author does not do as well with the rest of her story. Simon Ziele is a bland individual; neither he nor the secondary characters fully come to life. Simon, Alistair, and Isabelle flail around throughout much of this talky narrative, asking endless questions in such places as gambling dens and brothels. As they chase one red herring after another, they become increasingly baffled. When another dead body turns up, Simon is remorseful about his failure to catch the perpetrator before he could strike again. The dialogue is, for the most part, stilted, and the anticlimactic conclusion fails to pack much of a wallop. Perhaps Pintoff will follow up with another book that is more carefully constructed, and with a more fully delineated cast. That would be a novel well worth reading.

I highly recommend In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff. Ms. Pintoff hooks the reader from the first sentence. My only complaint is that once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down and as a result didn't get my usual sleep for a few nights. But it was worth it. Simon Ziele is a fascinating character - a man with secrets, having both physical and emotional pain who is enmeshed in his work as a suburban police officer. Ms. Pintoff put a lot of work into researching the book and as a result the reader, in addition to getting to read a well developed mystery, love story, and psychological novel also gets to learn about New York City in 1905. For example, one gets to learn interesting facts about New York, such as tidbits about Tammany Hall, Grand Central Station, Columbia University, and the General Slocum ferry tragedy.

Without giving away any of the details, the characters and the story are all very believable, and the mystery is well crafted. The book satisfies and at the same time it leaves you wanting more. And fortunately, if what one reads on the Internet is to be relied upon, we may get to enjoy Simon Ziele in sequels.

Treat yourself to a real find - get this book.

The General Slocum ferry caught fire and burned in June 1904, killing over 1,000 people. One of those who lost their lives was New York Police Detective Simon Ziele's fiancee, Hanah. With so many people having lost friends and family, Ziele moved to the village of Dobson, New York, looking for peace.

His peace is shattered when Simon and his boss, Joe Healy, are summoned to the home of Mrs. Virginia Wingate, where her niece, Sara, has been brutally murdered.

The killing made no sense. Sara had only recently arrived at the Wingate's in search of a place where she could study. She was a student in her fourth year at Columbia. She is active in the movement to enable women to have more voice in politics.

Simon is visited by Alistair Sinclair, a professor of law at Columbia and a criminologist. He states that he believes that Michael Fromley might be the killer. Alistair claims that Fromley has killed previously. With this help, Alistair and his daughter-in-law, Isabella, assist Simon in the investigation.

Interspersed within the story are historical facts of the times. This adds realism and is an interesting side to the story, such as when Simon gets a ride on a "...new Ford B motorcar." While in the car, he realizes that this is his first ride in an automobile.

The psychological novel is well told and the search for the guilty person is logically followed. I did feel that the story's finale was a bit orchestrated.

Simon Ziele is an original and refreshing character. He's very analytical and uses the latest scientific advances, such as the art of fingerprinting, to help solve the case.

I picked up Stefanie Pintoff's "In the Shadow of Gotham" looking for a good historical fiction with plenty of thrills. As someone who enjoys murder mysteries and New York's history, this book had a lot of promise. Unfortunately, it did not deliver.

The story itself meanders quite a bit and is very talky, with little excitement. There is a great deal of focus on criminology, which the author clearly researched is some detail. While the plotline does eventually take some interesting twists and is intriguing enough, it is never really thrills until the very end. While I thought the conclusion was satisfying, it feels very much like a classic Hollywood ending that we've seen many times before.

The characters in the book, particularly the main character, Simon Zeile, feel bland, and as other reviewers have noted, "do not come to life." The only thing we really learn about Ziele is that his fiancé died in the General Slocum shipwreck and his upbringing was tragic and clichéd. The only real emotion he seems to feel throughout the book is his frustration at his inability to catch the murderer- not very surprising given that he is a detective. Most of his character is revealed through Zeile's bland, first person narrative such as: "Who had killed her? And Why?"

For a true history-lover like myself, this book will likely disappoint. Like many of the characters, turn-of-the-century New York City never really comes to life. While there are occasional references to Tammany Hall and the Suffragist Movement, most of the history is quickly referenced and not described or explained. For example, Zeile seems to take riding the subway for granted, and not once mentions that first underground New York subway had opened only one year before this story takes place, and would have been a novelty. The first time he rides in an automobile only merits a sentence or two. The dialogue sounds like it could have come from any era, and many details, such as Ziele's taste for double espresso or a reference to "boneless stuffed chicken wings", feel somehow out-of-place for 1905.

Historically, parts of this book verge on the ridiculous. The reader is supposed to believe that Zeile photographs the crime scene and then examines the photographs later that night- with no mention the laborious chemical process this would have required as if there had been "one hour photo" in 1905. Some historical references are even inaccurate. For example, one murder suspect is described as residing in Columbia's "Wallach Hall," despite that fact that Wallach hall had been "Livingston Hall" until it was renamed in the 1970s. A quick Google search would have revealed that the building's namesake, New York philanthropist Ira D. Wallach, was not even born when this story took place! Such inaccuracies make me wonder how much historical research and fact-checking were really done for this book.

I was hoping for a gripping, page turner of a murder mystery. I didn't get that. Although it was mildly entertaining, it fell far short of my expectations. The biggest failure, for me, were the characters who failed to come to life. I guess its an OK read but its not a book I would recommend to a friend.

I bought this book on kindle without sampling it. A big mistake!

The novel received an Edgar for best first. I can only think that the judges are more impressed by historical research and the spurious color and background it can produce than by crisp writing, tight plotting, good characterization, and some demonstration of a desire to avoid cliche.

Turgid and often boring is my verdict. Sorry to be a grouch, but don't bother to buy it.

Unfortunately the second the culprit's character entered the text I knew "whodunnit." I was done before page 50!! Not well written either. I really don't understand how this book won mystery awards!

In the summer of 1904, the steamship General Slocum catches fire in the East River. Many die including the fiancée of NYPD Detective Simon Ziele who also lost the use of his right arm. Distraught, Ziele quits the force, leaves the big city, and accepts a law enforcement position in rustic Dobson in Westchester County just outside the Bronx.

However, the quiet community is shocked with the violent murder of Columbia mathematician Sarah Wingate. The culprit in a rage slashed and bashed the graduate student numerous times in her home. Ziele's investigation is superseded by an inquiry by criminologist Alistair Sinclair, who swears he can identify the killer, but must prove it.

Readers will understand why the engaging IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM won the first Minotaur Books/MWA Best First Crime Novel award. The story line provides the audience with a superb police procedural anchored strongly in early twentieth century Westchester County with entries like the General Slocum calamity and other tidbits. Ziele is a terrific lead character still grieving his loss of his fiancee; so though he ran away from NYPD he buries himself in the investigation. Stefanie Pintoff provides a wonderful historical mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I loved this book, mainly because I enjoyed spending time with the characters. Especially where there's a first-person narrator, I need to feel the voice is likable and the characters well developed. That was true here. I also appreciated how well the author incorporated real historical fact into the plot of the story, such as the mayoral election that takes place the day of the book's opening action. I look forward to the next in the series.

I whipped through "Shadow" fairly quickly, as the narrative had a great deal of energy and thrust, and I enjoy historical settings, especially this era in NYC. I think many readers will enjoy "Shadow", but I was curiously unmoved. For one, I pretty much guessed where the "ending" was going way, way before it started to turn down that path; I also found it hard to believe the reasons/rationalizations for the murders.

I was amused by how much the story felt like a 1900's version of the TV shows CSI and Criminal Minds.

And while i did enjoy many of the historical references - especially the bow made to the great French detective Vidocq - far too much of it was almost a case of name-dropping, as if Ms Pintoff kept going through her notes to see what bit of historicity she could give us, almost like the guide on a tour bus. And while there were plenty of these scattered throughout, rather randomly, I just did not get much of a feel for NYC in 1905. (I think it was 1905.) Of course, that was not the point of the story; then again, it would have made the book far better than just a fairly interesting read.