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75 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"It was the rare person who did not harbor some secret.", May 9, 2009
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.
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83 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't want to put it down!, May 11, 2009
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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Character is like a tree, a reputation ...a shadow. The shadow is what we think if it, the tree the real thing." A Lincoln, May 11, 2010
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.
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