After reading The Alienist I immediately had to begin reading the sequel, The Angel of Darkness, also by Caleb Carr. It begins with a quick and expeditious pace compared to The Alienist, and although it didn’t match the intelligence with which Carr’s previous novel was written, the story resounded with me in an exceedingly tempestuous manner.The story is narrated by Stevie Taggert who was rescued by the celebrated psychologist and alienist Dr. Lazslo Krieszler as a boy. It is a shift from the perspective of Dr. Krieszler’s friend, John Schuyler Moore, a criminal reporter for The New York Times, who narrated The Alienist. It begins with miss Sara Howard, the first female member of the NYPD and a key member of the investigative team that apprehended the villain in Carr’s previous work, bringing news of a case for the Doctor and his team to investigate. A child of a prominent Spaniard official has been kidnapped and he, for some reason, is unwilling to attempt to find her. Although the Doctor has initial misgivings about the case because of their misfortunes with the previous one, he experiences an invigoration of spirit and jubilantly proceeds to tackle the case with his unparalleled expertise and unorthodox views of human nature. With all his expertise and wisdom, even he couldn’t have expected to be in as harrowing and grim a pursuit as he soon finds.In Libby Hatch, the team, including Dr. Krieszler, discovers an enigma. She is a conniving, cunning, devious, deceptive seductress who leads them through the murkiest realms of behaviour and the human psyche. She is a spine-chilling character, not totally unlike the villain from the previous story, though she garners far less sympathy. I actively found myself chanting and rooting for her demise. I can’t emphasize how actively I try to stray from sadism… its an impressive feat for a character to receive as little sympathy as I had for Libby, no matter how frustrating and antagonizing she may be. She invoked feelings I haven’t encountered from any fictional character. I can only compare her to Amy Dunne from Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, and Enoch Cain from Dean Koontz’s From The Corner of His Eye.The story is a couple of hundred pages longer than The Alienist, but you’ll soon find yourself thankful for that. Perhaps its because I read the two books in such a short time span… I found myself surprisingly reluctant to finish the book, simply because I had grown so attached to the world of the late 1800′s New York as well as the characters within it. When it finally does end however, the satisfaction is limitless. Carr, once again, beautifully sets his novel while introducing readers to a region outside of New York for a longer period of time. He even manages to provide a wealth of information regarding legal proceedings and famous-yet-despicable defense attorneys. For those who may not have enjoyed learning about history, reading about it has never been so fun. He skillfully weaves his plot and leaves nothing untied - I would describe his two books as masterpieces. Although I don’t believe this story was as well written as its predecessor, I was far more emotionally involved than in The Alienist.For those of you that enjoyed this novel, I would recommend From The Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz.
Fans of historical detectives and even the television show Criminal Minds will enjoy the sequel to The Alienist. The first 1/4 of this book started slow and had me worried that what I liked so much about the Alienist would not be present in this sequel. It took a bit for the story to build but then I thoroughly enjoyed the story.Set in the 19th century when crime fighting techniques were at their infancy I enjoyed hearing the theories behind fingerprinting, ballistics and using sketches of possible suspects. Many terms that fans of Law & Order will be familiar with are just hinted at here as they had no name in this time ( like Munchausen by Proxy). Told from the point of view of Stevie the Stovetop most of the gang from the Alienist is back to solve the case of a kidnapped baby girl. I thought a particular strength of this book was the development of the side characters. Stevie's love interest is a cocaine addicted whore who has hooked up with a particularly nasty gang member ( what could go wrong?) I also enjoyed the bickering brothers who were the police detectives helping with this case but my favorite side character is a new one called El Niño who brings a sense of mystery and humor to the story.As with The Alienist many historical figures make an appearance and for the most part enhance my enjoyment of the story. The one exception, for me, was when Teddy Roosevelt showed up during the last 100 pages or so. A stronger editor might have eliminated that entire section which would have made for a better story. So despite a slow start and an ending that should have occurred 100 pages earlier I really enjoyed this book. I wish Caleb Carr had written more books with these characters because I miss them already.
What do You think about The Angel Of Darkness (1997)?
While the Alienist seem to be the classic of the two Dr. Kriezler books (it's ranked near the top of the 'best of' fictional crime book lists), I think Angel of Darkness was a far better book in both quality of writing and storytelling. While AOD is longer than the Alienist, the added length is justified with a more satisfying complicated plot and better character development. I just hope there will be at least a third book, taking place towards the end of Kriezler's career in some final epic case, written from his point of view.
—Josh Morgan
This "sequel" to The Alienist seemed a bit slow moving at first, but once I neared the halfway mark, I simply could not put it down. It was a suspense-filled psychological thriller set against a very interesting historical backdrop- the early days of feminism (Elizabeth Cady Stanton makes an appearance) and of forensic science and psychological profiling. While this book follows the same central characters introduced in The Alienist, it is written from the perspective of a different character, young Stevie Taggart. I've heard that another book is to be written about this group of investigators, from yet another character's point of view. I'll certainly look forward to that.
—K M
What can I say? I picked up this book expecting it to be not as good as "The Alienist" and was satisfied with another New York adventure circa 1897. One thing I appreciated about the book was how dark it got at times. Despite the serial killer's mutilations of children in "the Alienist", I found the killer in "The Angel of Darkness" much more terrifying, although not at first.Then, the characters had interesting bad moments too. I was particularly affected by Stevie's love for Kat, the pre-adolescent cocaine addict and whore. The characters were fleshed out and became real; as opposed to heroes, they were flawed people doing right.Not as fastly paced as the first book but definitely worth reading for whoever enjoyed "The Alienist."
—Leonora
