This book had a lot of amazing qualities: historical facts, interesting premise, some well developed and unique characters, but it lacked proper pacing to keep you hooked. Thrillers need to read like a runaway train, and this read more like a commuters local.

This is one of the best historical/mystery/suspense books I've ever read. Author Jean Zimmerman has written an incredibly compelling novel about life, love and murder in New Amsterdam (lower Manhattan) in 1660. Ms. Zimmerman's attention to detail and knowledge of life and the history of the early days of Manhattan bring realism and depth to this tale of grizzly murder, . The main character is a strong and spirited heroine, Blandine van Couvering - Blandine, an orphan herself, is artfully drawn i More...

“The Orphan Master” by Jean Zimmerman, published by Viking.

Category – Fiction/Historical Fiction

In 1663 Lower Manhattan was called New Amsterdam and was a Dutch Colony. The Dutch had a civil position known as “The Orphan Master” whose job was to watch over children who had lost both their parents.

Aet Visser was “The Orphan Master” for New Amsterdam. He placed children in homes or places where they could work.

Edward Drummond, an Englishman, comes to New Amsterdam to scout the area for a possible More...

An historical novel, yes, but oh so much more! Author Jean Zimmerman has meticulously researched the data on the colony established by the Dutch West India Company in the 1600s. The colony, New Amsterdam, will eventually become Manhattan, but in 1660 it is a bustling center of commerce under the iron fist (and wooden leg) of Petrus Stuyvesant. One of the bureaucratic jobs in the community is the Orphan Master. His job is to oversee and protect and provide for the orphans there. Orphans may have More...

A story about a fictional string of orphan-murders in Manhattan's 17th Century Dutch New Amsterdam colony is certainly a great idea for a book, but what type? Is it a murder mystery? a historical romance? or is it literary fiction? Often, it feels like the writer herself hasn't quite decided. However, the final section of the novel delivers the answer with dead-on precision--it is a gruesome, nail-biting, shocker of a crime thriller. If only the preceding 375 pages matched the final 40. Still, t More...

The rating should be about 2 1/2. A historical novel that seemed to throw everything the author knew about this time period and then some. So very many details on so many characters and all the time I was pleading 'please just get back to the main plot.' I've read so many books lately that seem to need a good editor with a sharpened red pencil to hone down the words and leave enough meat, just get on with the story. At least 150 pages could have been trimmed so that I wanted to read and finish t More...

This is a historical thriller set in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1673. First of all, let me say that I love historical novels set in old New York, whether it is in the 1600s or even later. Having been born and raised in NYC, I always get a kick out of where the current names for NYC streets, neighborhoods and structures like bridges and tunnels, come from.

Having said that, I really enjoyed this book. Orphans throughout the colony are mysteriously disappearing, and many have even turned More...

Historian Jean Zimmerman has written several very well received histories among them Love Fiercely, A Guilded Age Romance and The Woman of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, A Fortune and a Dynasty. Her most recent book is also her first novel, The Orphanmaster.


Set in 1663 New Amsterdam, The Orphanmaster is the story of the murder of an 8 year old African-American slave, Piddy Gullee, the economics of orphans and the Charles the II sanctioned hunt for the murders of Charles More...

The Orphanmaster begins somewhat slowly, but you will find yourself engaged in the story which takes place in New Amsterdam (now Manhattan) in the mid-1600s. New Amsterdam is a thriving commercial center where everyone, even women, Africans and sometimes Indians can have successful businesses. But the town of New Amsterdam has a problem: children are disappearing. Most, but not all are orphans, many are black, and some are Indian, so the residents of the town don't take much notice, until bodies More...

4 1/2 stars for this one.
Rich, wonderful historical fiction romance with murders or maybe murder mystery with a romance. Anyway you parse it, it is a great book.
The setting is one not usually seen--New Amsterdam in the early 1660s. The Dutch hold Manhatten Island, the Hudson River valley and a chunk of Long Island, but the settlers are few in number and life is precarious. Orphans are numerous--both local(their settler parents are dead)and imported (brought to New Amsterdam from Holland as poten More...

Just when I think I'm going to give on finding good fiction, a book like The Orphanmaster comes along. It has everything - good writing, a good mystery (the orphans keep disappearing and body parts are found), a romance, page-turning excitement, and an excellent interesting historical background. Oh, and a map (I love books with maps).
The story is set in 1600s New Amsterdam, just before the English took it over and turned it into New York. The Dutch settlement is being plagued by the disappeara More...

First, the writing is awkward and clunky. It's third person omniscient, but she's inconsistent in her omniscience, like, sometimes we are with the crazy killer and we know just what he's thinking (and yes, it's exactly who you think it is), and sometimes it's a mystery. She doesn't seem to have a handle on how to deal with information, like, at all, so we either get confusing withholding, or a deathly dull information dump.

Second, Writing historical fiction doesn't mean you have to give us an "o More...

From the back cover...
"In this dramatic, beautifully writtn novel, Jean Zimmerman takes scrupulous pleasure in conveying the harsh and earthy reality of life in the 1660's, recreating the sights, textures, and aromas of early Manhattan and its surounding wilderness, as well as immersing the reader in the absorbing poltical intrigues of the time. Lively, fast-paced, and full of colorful charactrs, The Orphanmanster is a compusively readable blend of adventure, history, love, and thrilling suspens More...

The Orphanmaster is coming to eat you, or is he? Jean Zimmerman hath assayed several non-fiction tomes, but hath finally decided to scriven a novel. And why, you may ask, am I writing in an archaic fashion?

I just read, The Orphanmaster which is set in the colony of New Amsterdam in the 1660s and somehow the language seems apt. (Full disclosure, I won this book as part of Goodreads First Reader giveaway program.)

New Amsterdam belonged to the Dutch West India Company and was led by a peg-legged, More...

Jean Zimmerman writes in the afterward to her historical novel, The Orphanmaster, that her husband asked her to, “Write me a murder.” She should have ignored him and concentrated on writing an historical adventure novel that interweaves the lives of its characters with the historical and political events of the time, instead of an ill-conceived and poorly executed period murder mystery.

The best parts of the novel involve Blandine Van Couvering’s rise as a female trader in the Dutch colony of New More...

• The author who has written a non-fiction book on this time period, so she knows her stuff, but her writing did not appeal to me and at times the language was too much of the time so that made the story drag
• I really enjoyed the character of Blandine van Couvering and she is one of the reasons I kept reading – she was a strong independent woman that remained true to her ambitions while earning respect.
• There was really a position called “orphanmaster” who was “in charge” of the orphans (and a More...

This book is wacko! There are way too many characters to remember and every page introduces new ones. The writing does not seem smooth, rather it seems spotty or " clunky" as another reviewer posted. There were a lot of spots were I would get lost and then I would eventually get back into it, only to get lost again. I only gave it two stars because it's not the absolute worst book I have read...but it wasn't fun to read at all.

Jean Zimmerman’s The Orphanmaster is a story set in seventeenth-century Manhattan, then known as New Amsterdam. Life is hard and rough, war with England looms, and now children are disappearing.

In this New Amsterdam, Blandine von Couvering is trying to build a reputation – and a fortune – for herself as a trader. With no family, it’s sink or swim on her own – or marry her suitor Kees, who happens to be the nephew of New Amsterdam’s dictatorial director-general. She’s a pretty cool character, is More...

In my imaginary Fenimore Cooper School of Literary Offenses, there's a popular class on how to write irritating historical novels. Writers are encouraged to apply modern ideas to past cultures. Jean Zimmerman surely took this course. Her heroine Blandina, who lives in New Amsterdam just before it falls to the British, is an independent trader. So far so good. But then we find she's best buddies with the African Americans shunned by the rest of the colony, not to mention with a native American. H More...

Jean Zimmerman's "The Orphanmaster" is a captivating mystery about a brutal serial killer terrorizing the people of this 17th century Dutch colony, filled with intriguing characters and historical details of the daily lives of the people of 1660s New Amsterdam. Addressing issues of women's and children's roles and rights, treatment of Native Americans, trade and political intrigue, this novel is one I'd strongly recommend for readers who enjoy historical fiction. Zimmerman's novel is well-resear More...

Zimmerman's minor characters are really well done. Visser, Martyn, Lightening, Kitane, Anthony, and Stuyvesant are memorable and interesting. Many of the orphans also have interesting personality traits and back stories. However her main characters, Blandina and Edward, are a little dull. Perhaps it was because so much of the story was told in an omniscient retrospect POV rather than allowed to unfold as a linear narrative that I didn't feel as connected to Blandina or Edward as I felt I should More...

Review originally posted here.

The Orphanmaster is Jean Zimmerman's debut novel. It is not, however, her first foray into publication by any stretch of the imagination. Zimmerman is, first and foremost, a historian. Earlier this year, I read her recently published Love, Fiercely, and quite enjoyed it. Despite that, The Orphanmaster wasn't really on my radar, and I was going to let it pass me by. Then, one of the lovely folks at Penguin offered me a copy for review, and I couldn't say no. Guys, I More...

I read this book on a whim since it was suggested to fans of Geraldine Brooks. Not as lyrical as Brooks but plenty engrossing and the characters are more charming than those we find in Brooks' novels. Set in New Netherlands in 1663, a female merchant Blandine and an English Spy Drummond join forces to discover why orphan children are going missing. The rich, diverse ethic groups of the Dutch, English, Indian, African, Catholics, and Protestants are woven through this tale. What of course would b More...

3.5 stars
This a book full of thrilling action scenes and colorful characters.I feel that a lot of research went into recreating historically the time and place, but it did not transport me there as I found it difficult to picture the setting, and the characters did not seem real to me. There were some interesting facts brought out.
I had never heard of the witiki but had often read about the Wendigo which is the same evil spirit. I was surprised to find out that Wendigo psychosis was a real ps More...

The orphanmaster was a real position in New Amsterdam, the forerunner of New York City. As there were many children orphaned in these early colonial times, it became a full-time job finding them new homes as servants, farmworkers, laborers, etc. Aer Vissar takes his job very seriously, so when his orphans begin disappearing and are later found to be ritualistic carved up and eaten, he takes this personally. As does Blandine VanCouvering, an orphan herself, who is a she-merchant in the Dutch colo More...

This is a 4.5 for me, and the only thing that kept me from giving it a five is the crutch of formula mystery/crime writing that it leans on. The setting is outstanding, though. 17th century New Amsterdam is not a time/place I have read about before and Zimmerman captured the sounds, smells and sights of it as well as the inhabitants. A mixture of Dutch, English, German, Indian and African form the list of characters, and most are fully fleshed by the writing. There are significant scary moments( More...

A creature stalks the shadows of New Amsterdam. Known as the witika, it is a deranged beast that consumes the flesh of its fellow man. In Jean Zimmerman's The Orphanmaster, the witika has been blamed for a recent string of orphan kidnappings and killings. Dutch merchant Blandine von Couvering, who is an orphan herself, has her doubts, and sets out to solve the mystery with the help of British spy Edward Drummond, her servant/companion Antony, and Kitane, a Lenape trapper.

Though it had its faults More...

Kind of a mixed reaction to this. The details about life in 17th century New Amsterdam were vivid and convincing. The author knows her stuff. The many characters -- Dutch and English, African and Native, Puritan and Catholic -- are interesting although I didn't find myself caring about too many of them, even the two central characters, Blandine and Drummond, left me indifferent. The only ones I felt anything for were the Orphanmaster himself and those orphans who had some ongoing role. The main More...

Reading an ARC courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.com.

Jean Zimmerman's historical mystery, The Orphanmaster, offers the reader a tantalizing glimpse into colonial New York (then New Amsterdam). As a whole it succeeds more as a period piece rather than a suspense story. Zimmerman's research and attention to detail crafts an entirely believable and engaging setting which comes alive whether the characters are in town or in the wild boundaries of the Dutch colony. However, Zimmerman sometimes More...