PW talks with Lyndsay Faye: NYPD day one.(Q&A)(Publishers Weekly)(New York City Police Department)(Interview)

The beginnings of the New York City Police Department in 1845 are at the heart of Lyndsay Faye's series debut, The Gods of Gotham (Reviews, Jan. 16; pub date, Mar.).

Where did this book come from?

I began with the concept of day one, cop one--the very first New York City police officer on his first day on the job. I knew nothing about the topic, and thus rolled up my sleeves and spent six months buried in the depths of the New York Public Library's research library and the New York Historical Society. Much of the plot came directly from my research: the fire that decimated lower Manhattan; the formation of the police, the flood of Irish immigration due to the …