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Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye
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Seven for a Secret (original 2013; edition 2013)

by Lyndsay Faye (Author)

Series: Timothy Wilde (2)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4605453,528 (4.12)74
Fiction. African American Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. 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 ruled by the 'blackbirders,' who snatch free Northerners of color, masquerade them as slaves, and sell them South to toil as plantation property. 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.… (more)
Member:brodiew2
Title:Seven for a Secret
Authors:Lyndsay Faye (Author)
Info:G.P. Putnam's Sons (2013), Edition: Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed, 464 pages
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Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye (2013)

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» See also 74 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 55 (next | show all)
Right, so I think this is a spectacular historical New York mystery. Well written, well paced, hard to put down. I wish I had started with the first in the series, but I made a mistake.

The down sides here are that as a new copper star in New York, Timothy Wilde is seeing the worst the world can offer, from child prostitution to slave catching, and all the machinations of the political machines. Which is frankly really tough reading. I don't doubt a word of it is based on true stories, and it just hits too hard. It leaves me with too powerful a sorrow to want to read further. So well done for being a writer who can get your poignant history across. I'm sorry I don't have the stomach for it. ( )
  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |
I really enjoyed this story, and look forward to reading the first in the series also. The main character, Timothy, was very believable and engaging. What I really liked was the author's very creative use of words to convey not only action but feeling as well. ( )
  decaturmamaof2 | Nov 28, 2018 |
This is the second in Faye's "copper star" series featuring Timothy Wilde and his wilder older brother Val, two of the first officers of the NYPD (when it was not yet called that) in the early 19th century. The historical aspects of these stories are gripping, grim and enlightening if not uplifting. Tim feels himself overmatched and under-appreciated by his brother, a brilliant complicated man with powerful connections and unsavory habits. In a very different milieu, Tim occasionally plays Watson to Val's Sherlock, but more often plays Sherlock to Val's Mycroft, though it's the elder brother who dabbles excessively in laudanum and "hemp weed". I find Tim a bit tiresome after a couple hundred pages; he needs to gain a bit of self-confidence, but he also needs to stop opposing his brother's advice just because of its source. This story involved the practice of kidnapping free people of color and selling them South into slavery; it's a heart-breaker, but it needed tightening up. It just took much too long and too many words to get to the conclusion. ( )
  laytonwoman3rd | Sep 27, 2018 |
I find that the best most interesting part of this series is how much people can surprise you, even in the worst situations, for the better. ( )
  Eternal.Optimist | Aug 22, 2018 |
Excellent narration and a good entry in this story of the beginnings of the NYC police force, known as the Copper Stars. Slave catchers are a danger to all persons of color, including ones that have their free status appropriately documented. A kidnapping turns into murder and the significant involvement of Timothy and brother Val in thwarting these egregious assaults on personal freedoms which are rampant in the class, ethnic and racial strata of this pre Civil War Era. ( )
  jamespurcell | Oct 21, 2017 |
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This one's for Gabriel, who always thinks I can.
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On the day the worst happened to her - and by worst I mean the tragedy you'd die to prevent, kill to prevent, the cruelty beyond endurance - Lucy Adams was working in a flower shop, arranging scarlet and orange hothouse roses whose colors could have put a midsummer sunset to shame.
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Fiction. African American Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. 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 ruled by the 'blackbirders,' who snatch free Northerners of color, masquerade them as slaves, and sell them South to toil as plantation property. 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.

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Timothy Wilde solves
a violent murder while
trailing blackbirders.
(passion4reading)

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