-Anonymous Teacher
All right! Post number three and chapter number one! Really quick, I did some research and it turns out "Gotham" from the title is a nick name for New York City, originally used by Washington Irving (you know, the writer of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"). Lets get this thing started!
So first off, we're in Dobson, New york (remember kids, that's an imaginary town) on Tuesday, November 7th, 1905. Where in Dobson are we? 27 Main Street at the police HQ. The time is 5:00 p.m.. As a little not-so-off-topic side note, this book is in first person, and if it stays the same the whole way through, it's all in past tense, as if Detective Ziele is remembering it. And speaking about detective Ziele, the book starts with him sitting at his desk finishing up a report on one Thomas Jones who showed up drunk to work and punched his foreman. I'm guessing he was arrested.
Anyways, it's about closing time for the police office of Dobson, Joe Healy, the police chief, is getting ready to leave and tells Ziele to close up when he leaves, but a young Charlie Muncie comes bolting up the stairs to tell the two that help is needed at the Wingate home.
Going to teak a quick pause in the story here to give a bit of background. Charlie Muncie is about 18 and was hired as the village secretary and operates the only phone in the building. Charlie's mother works for the Wingate family and when he receives news that they need help up there, he becomes unsettled, obviously fearing for his mother.
And now for Police Chief Joe Healy. He is a stout, ruddy, pleasant man in his early 60's who has been on the force 27 years. He doesn't like the fact that he has a new (noticeably younger) partner because he fears that the mayor wants to force him into retirement. He, I deduce (haHA! Spy words!), has ties to the Wingate's because when he hears the news, he gets a little emotional. Not the sappy chick-flick emotional, like wide-eyes 'oh God, what happened?!' kind. I think that might play a role in the story at some point down the road.
Finally, Detective Simon Ziele. He is about 30 years old and worked at the NYPD Bureau of Detectives 7th precinct. The 7th consists of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is the second smallest precinct in the NYPD and does exist. He also has a weak stomach for some kinds of cases (like murders or accidental deaths?). But anyways, he moved north of NYC (so Dobson is north of NYC.) to Dobson in search of a quieter life and to escape the memory of his fiancé, Hannah.
He and Hannah were on the General Solcum (the ferry from the disaster from the previous post) when the ship burst into flames. From what I read, he was knocked off of the boat by a piece of the falling deck and survived the ordeal. Hannah and a thousand others died on the boat. He moved out of the city a few months later.
Back to the story, Joe and Ziele both head out to the Wingate home which in in the "estate section" of the town. This has me confused now. It says that "Behind us the cragged cliffs of the Palisades loomed large over the Hudson River." So I have no clue WHERE this is, but obviously it's near the river (leading to a water escape?) and somewhere near the Palisades. Which happen to be cliffs. Next!
They passed a place called "Churche's Corner" and any place that has an actual name and a description has got to be important. So this seems to be a divided neighborhood. At least when it comes to religion. There are three churches, all catholic, on or near this corner. An Italian Catholic church, an Irish Catholic Church, and a Polish Catholic Church. I get the feeling something is very important here, but I can't put my finger on it.
Next up is the Wingate home. The text says something about the steeper the hill, the more expensive the home, or something like that, and I'm assuming that there is a "king of the hill" kind of mentality among the estates. Also a "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" kind of thing. But anyways, the Wingate home is a stately home, Victorian-style stone architecture, with a Pink mansard roof. Here are examples of a Stone Victorian house and a mansard roof (not pink, sorry).
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| Stone Victorian House |
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| Mansard Roof |
These are just two examples.
Joe and Ziele pull up to the Wingate home to find the yard abuzz with action. The two white terriers are tied to a stake in the yard, yapping nonstop, and Dr. Cyrus Fields son, Henry, is keeping some pesky neighbors off of the porch. Mrs. Wingate is sitting on her front porch.
Time for more breakdowns! First of all, the two small white terriers are simply breathing, fluffy, footballs. Okay not really, but they are so annoying! But back on topic, we have a few new characters.
Dr. Cyrus Fields is a short, middle aged, energetic man with graying hair. Under the circumstances, he remains calm (on the outside at least, the book doesn't describe his feelings much) and that says to me that he is able to be the calm, cool, and collective type. He isn't exactly the chosen doctor of the estate families because he helps out the blue collar, working class families. He also serves at the morgue and has a son that is being prepared to take over the practice.
Henry Fields is not really described much and is being prepared to take over the business. Really, that's about it.
The preferred doctor of the estate families hough is Dr. Adam Whittier. That is the weirdest name ever, and there isn't much description here either.
Mrs. Wingate is a very old lady living with two of her nieces, Abigail and Sarah. She is almost 80, and seems not to know anything about the murder. I'm not implying that she does, but you never know.
Next up is the last couple murders mentioned in the story before this one. The first murder Joe had dealt with was in 1893 when a farmer was shot over a land dispute, the case was never resolved. And the last murder before this one was six months ago, just before Ziele has joined.
They head inside and Joe leaves Ziele to look at the crime scene. What Ziele sees was extremely unexpected. To describe it, it would take a paragraph, but I'll just say that it was... Brutal. That would be the right word. Anyways, Ziele checks out the crime scene and finds that the blood is still wet which means that the girl has only been dead for 2-3 hours. Sarah Wingate, the victim, had been visiting since the friday before, and had come to have a nice comfortable quiet place to study. Well, that didn't turn out so well.
Sarah Wingate was an interesting girl. She was about 25 and was a brilliant college student. But her life ended with a deep throat wound, blunt head trauma, and multiple lacerations plus a piece of her blonde hair removed. My reaction was 'wow' when I saw that and could describe the room, but I don't think I really need to. Use your imagination.
As Ziele looks the room over, he is grateful, but disappointed. Grateful, because the Wingates have electricity in their home, which will allow him to work later, but disappointed because through his searching he found nothing. On his way in, he remembers seeing the other niece of Mrs. Wingate, Abigail, sitting in the library.
Something in the room that he did find that I thought might be important later on were a few books and magazines. of the books were: The Ambassadors and Dracula, and of the magazines were: The House of Mirth and Harpers (the September issue).
As Ziele is wrapping up though, a sudden call from Joe outside brings him to the back yard.
Aaand CUT! Whew! I'm sorry this one was so long, but she threw a lot of information at the reader the first time around and I tried to shorten it. Either I'm really bad at summarizing or this was just a LOT of information. But thank you for reading this, sorry if you didn't read the warning at the top about spoilers, and stay tuned for another episode of me breaking down "In the Shadow of Gotham" by Stefanie Pintoff.
Now for the assignment part of this.
My personal reaction to this was, in short, this is gonna be a good book! I was impressed with how well she blended the description of the characters with their history and the events taking place as they did their thing. I guess if I were to take notes differently while I was reading, I wouldn't take so many long notes and keep it short and to the essentials.
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