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One cannot read THE FATAL FLAME without feeling a strong sense of foreboding throughout. Maybe this is due to the fact that this (to the extent a door is ever shut on a successful series) is the final installment of Timothy Wilde and company in print; or maybe it's due to a title that foreshadows a sense of finality; or perhaps simply the fact that the Brothers Wilde are taking on the all-powerful Tammany Hall political machine that tells us that this is the Wildes' most serious battle yet.
No matter the reason, this third volume of a series that started with 2012's GODS OF GOTHAM and continued with 2013's SEVEN FOR A SECRET, is a culmination of obvious careful research, and even more careful characterizations by Lyndsay Faye. Like the previous entries, it focuses on young Timothy Wilde, a "copper star" of the newly formed New York Police Department as he tries to keep his politically active brother, another copper star, Valentine - a captain on the force - away from his many vices while attempting to do much good for the people of New York's Eighth Ward as possible, while not running afoul of the labor and political forces that have corrupted the city.
Corrupt alderman Robert Symmes comes to the Wildes seeking help after threats to set fire to his factories. The writer of these letters is apparently one of a radical group of women upset that their efforts for better work conditions and equality has led to their dismissal from Symmes' factories. While initially eager to help, the Brothers Wilde quickly see through Symmes' greasy veneer of corruption and arrogance, and the ever brash Valentine decides to put himself on the ballot to oppose Symmes in the upcoming election. Symmes is not exactly the type of enemy you want to make as police Chief Matsell makes clear to the Wildes; and much more than just the Wildes' continuing employment on the police force may hang in the balance.
At the same time, Tim's personal arrangement with his landlady Mrs Boehm is getting both more tender and more complicated, especially since Tim's great love, Mercy Underhill, has come back from her trip abroad. Mercy's return not only complicates Tim's personal life, but when she takes in a young Irish orphan who may know quite a bit about Symmes' business operation, it adds yet another complicating layer of danger for Tim and his investigation.
Lyndsay Faye is clearly views history through a socially-conscious lens and this series is proof of that. Each installment has explored issues that America, and New York in particular, dealt with in the mid-19th century. Earlier in the series, the plight of Irish immigrants and the horrific nature of the slave trade in New York was addressed; in this case, it is working conditions and discrimination that female workers faced. While all of these concerns have moderated in terms of severity, they are still extremely relevant to social issues today; luckily Faye lets the story tell itself and never abandons storytelling and subtlety in the name of pushing a message to readers. The one flaw with this series, however, is that as well-drawn as all the characters are, Tim Wilde occasionally sounds like a 21st century New Yorker with a century and a half of hindsight behind him rather than a character of his time in a society much less progressive than Faye's own.
Even so, THE FATAL FLAME is the culmination of a masterful series which has received notices well beyond the mystery world - this is historical fiction at its finest. Where many well-researched historical titles are too immersed in their own world to provide real, three-dimensional characters, Faye always puts her characters first before setting or plot. Even if the plot here is thinner than previous volumes in order to allow Faye to wrap up loose ends to the series, this is a more than satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. While reading this book will be greatly enriched from familiarity with the first two installments of the series, readers new to the world of "copper stars" are sure to be delighted as well.
§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.
Reviewed by Ben Neal, June 2015
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