Product Description

In one of the most critically acclaimed novels of the year, Caleb Carr-- bestselling author of The Alienist--pits Dr. Laszlo Kreizler and his colleagues against a murderer as evil as the darkest night. . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60608 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-27
• Released on: 1998-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 768 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345427632
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
Boyd Gaines skillfully delivers a wide range of voices and characterizations in narrating this potboiler (LJ 10/15/97), the sequel to Carr's The Alienist. The time is June 1897. The place is New York City. The story is narrated by 13-year-old, streetwise Stevie Taggart, who is a member of a team of detecting irregulars. The kidnapping of an 18-month-old child sets the story in motion. The ongoing investigation uncovers a sociopath named Libby Hatch, who is a suspect in the deaths of a frightening number of children, including her own. Using the relatively new fields of forensics and psychoanalysis, and calling on the assistance of some well-known "names" (Teddy Roosevelt, Franz Boaz, Cornelius Vanderbuilt), the team runs Libby Hatch to earth. But where is the child she recently abducted? The clever zigzags of this thriller finally answer this question. Well recommended.?Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Sch. of Continuing Education, Providence
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An absorbing if overlong sequel to Carr's popular 1994 thriller, The Alienist. As in that novel, the figures of ``alienist'' (i.e., psychologist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, investigative journalist John Schuyler Moore, and Kreizler's assistant Stevie ``Stevepipe'' Taggert (who tells the story) figure prominently in the investigation of a peculiarly dastardly crime. The year is 1897, and Carr's plot is initiated by the kidnapping of a Spanish diplomat's baby--then thickens, quite pleasurably, as suspicion falls on Elspeth Hunter, a malevolent nurse who is actually Libby Hatch, a malevolent gang moll and the suspected murderess of her own children. The pursuit, capture, and attempted conviction of Libby involve such notable historical figures as painter Albert Pinkham Ryder, women's-rights crusader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Libby's defense attorney Clarence Darrow (who dominates a fascinating extended courtroom scene), and (back also from The Alienist) New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, who commandeers the US Navy to aid in the story's climactic pursuit. Carr overloads his tale with digressive comments on ever-worsening political relations between the US and Cuba (though one can argue such passages' relevance to the novel's initial mystery), and disastrously slows down the otherwise absorbing courtroom scenes by including needless detailed summaries of cases of child murder offered as precedents. But these are minor blemishes. Carr has learned to plot since The Alienist, and this novel usually moves at a satisfyingly rapid pace. The ambiance is convincingly thick and period-flavorful, the murderous details satisfyingly gruesome, and even the somewhat shaky central ethical question--whether ``a woman's murdering her own kids . . . could actually be looked at as her trying to gain control over her life and her world''--is quite convincingly presented. As for the nefarious Libby--presented, with perfect appropriateness, only as others see and hear her--she rivals Lydia Gwilt of Wilkie Collins's Armadale as the pluperfect villainess, and the centerpiece of an enormously entertaining and satisfying reading experience. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
A very good sequel to a superb novel.... Part mystery, part psychological case study, and part grimly revisionist urban history.... Carr's unblinking, scrupulously detailed vision of the darkest corners of a growing metropolis is as vivid and enthralling as it was in The Alienist.Let's hope he's saved enough material for at least one more book. -- Entertainment Weekly, Mark Harris

Although working one's way through Carr's hefty book is like reading history, he manages to make historical figures appear to spring full-blown (and full of odd humanity) from his imagination. In truth, real people, especially of the world-changing variety (why, just look at the Spencer family), usually turn out to be even more interesting than made-up ones. And Carr's invented characters have, with few exceptions, both the surface and the internal cast of reality. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Celia McGee

Sequels usually don't work, but in The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr has written at least as winning a historical thriller as his bestseller The Alienist..... Once again, he has created a turn-of-the-century New York City that feels as authentic as a fading tintype. -- The New York Times Book Review, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Customer Reviews

s- l-o-w beginning followed by fast, exciting conclusion
If you've already read "The Alienist" you can skip the first 100 pages of this book, it takes that long for Carr to settle into telling the story of Libby Hatch. Whereas "The Alienist" was told from the viewpoint of John Moore, a journalist for The New York Times, "The Angel of Darkness" is narrated by Stevie Taggart, one of the characters from that first book. Once the book actually gets going, however, it's first-rate, in particular the courtroom scenes with Clarence Darrow and the sections in which Stevie and Miss Howard (also from the first book) drive around upstate New York searching for information about the elusive Libby. Theodore Roosevelt makes a reappearance in this book as well although I thought his whole reason for getting involved in the case was a bit contrived. On the whole, however, it's a well-written and interesting book. Carr twice hints that the next book will be written from the perspective of the independent and energetic Sara Howard, which should be most interesting.

Well done!
Carr has done an excellent job. The story line and the characterizations were excellent.

To his credit, Carr manages to refer the reader to the protagonists' earlier adventure (see The Alienist) while at the same time providing enough information about the earlier adventure so that it stands alone. This serves both the reader familiar with the Alienist but who needs to have their recollections refreshed, and the first time Carr reader. (I am often frustrated and annoyed at authors who presume reader familiarity with their collected works.)

Carr also manages to portray early-day feminists and feminist theory in what I perceive to be an authentic fashion. In other words, I felt he accurately portrayed feminist thought in its incipient stages. Any so-called immaturity of thought on the parts of those characters seems, in historical context, appropriate.

My only complaint was the voice of the narrator, Stevie. The intonation, accent, and method of speaking may very well be accurate. However, I found it grating to see the obligatory "what" every few paragraphs. (E.G. The girl what had the burney.) I am both relieved and intrigued to hear that Carr plans to write additional Alienist volumes and put each one in a different voice. All in all, an excellent work.

A worthy sequel
"A sequel to 'The Alienist'? YES! " I actually shouted that out loud in a library when I was told about "The Angel of Darkness." Again, Caleb Carr paints an intricate portrait of Golden Age New York, and brings back all the great characters from "The Alienist," utilizing a unique twist in changing his narrator from society reporter John Moore to the street-smart Stevie Taggert, whose less-than-perfect grammar doesn't obscure his keen observations. Again, Carr utilizes real-life historical figures, most notably a young Clarence Darrow, to bring authenticity to the story of a female child-murderer and the investigation that brings her heinous crimes to light. So why only four stars? Those of you who have read Ann Rule's "Small Sacrifices" will see a lot of Diane Downs in murderer Libby Hatch--in fact, Carr cites Rule's book as an influence. Overall, though, a great sequel--can't wait for the next one!