Wed 17 Jun 2020
A Mystery Review by Barry Gardner: CALEB CARR – The Alienist.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[13] Comments
CALEB CARR – The Alienist. Random House, hardcover, 1994. Bantam, paperback, 1995. TV adaptation: A ten-episode limited series on TNT, January 22 to March 26, 2018.
Carr is a young native of NYC with a degree in history who writes frequently on political and military affairs. His first novel was one of the bigger ones of ’94, and I missed it. Why is it that I get review copies by the basket that I wouldn’t read on a bet, but not the ones I want to? I actually had to buy a second-hand copy. It’s not fair.
It’s 1896, and Theodore Roosevelt is Police Commissioner of New York City. Dr. Lazlo Kreizler is a controversial psychologist, or “alienist.†John Schuyler Moore is a crime reporter for the New York Times. The three men met in their youth at Harvard, and now they must form an unlikely and secret alliance. Someone is killing the city’s children, and viciously mutilating their bodies.
Dr. Kreizler believes it is the same someone, and that he will kill at increasingly shorter intervals. His theories about insanity are so unpopular that Roosevelt cannot be publicly associated with him, so they must work covertly to catch the murderer, a serial killer before that was a phrase for it, or public that would or could believe in it.
I’m enough of a literary snob that it goes against the grain for me to admit I like a bestseller, but I’ve got to ’fess up — this was a damned good book. A serial killer book, too, and I don’t like those at all. I’m always amazed when a young writer and first time novelist writes so well.
It’s a fascinating detective story, as well as being an equally fascinating picture of New York City at the end of the 19th century. Carr’s slowly painted portrait of the killer is chilling, and his characterizations of the team following him solid. I would have liked to have seen Moore, the narrator, a little better developed. But it’s hard to quarrel with the foci Carr chose.
It’s a thick book, and at times I thought the very picture of the city that I found so interesting slowed the story a bit too much. All told, though, it was an excellent book and would surely made my 1994 awards list.
June 17th, 2020 at 5:14 pm
Theodore Roosevelt’s name listed as one of America’s ‘Just Men’ is a turn on. Will find a copy — now.
June 17th, 2020 at 5:24 pm
Have also ordered the blu ray edition, first season on TNT.
June 17th, 2020 at 6:41 pm
I saw the first season on TNT and for some reason was not impressed. I didn’t know there was a second season.
June 17th, 2020 at 7:34 pm
From Wikipedia: The second season, titled The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, is set to premiere on July 26, 2020.
June 17th, 2020 at 6:46 pm
Perhaps I should try the book.
June 17th, 2020 at 7:38 pm
Someone else will have to tell me then if Dakota Fanning’s character is in the book, or whether she was added to te TV version only to give a female character a much higher profile.
I’ve not read the book either.
June 17th, 2020 at 8:52 pm
I’ve read a few CALEB CARR books and found them okay, but a little too long with dull patches along the way. I sampled the TNT series and like Randy was not impressed.
June 17th, 2020 at 8:55 pm
I enjoyed the book, but didn’t think much of the series. Is the new season based on the second book or original?
Anyone know?
June 18th, 2020 at 2:32 pm
Season Two complete title is “The Alienist …The Angel of Darkness” which TAOD is the title of the second book of series. I don’t recall Fanning’s character in the books at all. Certainly not in a position of importance equal to–or greater than–the core “detectives”.
June 18th, 2020 at 6:43 pm
Thanks for the information, Rick. I decided quite a while ago that I wasn’t going to read this book, in spite of all the people I know who’ve told me about it, and mostly good things, too. I don’t enjoy books about serial killers, and I really don’t like books in which children are the victims. The latter is bad enough in real life. I don’t have to spend my reading time on them. My point of view only. I’m sure the book is as good as Barry says, for example.
June 20th, 2020 at 11:04 pm
A previous Mystery*File review of this title by Walter Albert: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=53675
June 21st, 2020 at 12:27 pm
Thanks, Bill. I’d forgotten Walter’s review, but I think it was his last line “Highly recommended, if you can stomach the graphic descriptions of mutilated bodies and irruptions of violence.” that preventing me from even thinking of reading it (the book, that is).
But while going back to read it again, I found and corrected two typos and fixed the images. This latter continues to be a problem. Since the blog has switched to its new platform, hundreds of images have disappeared, and I just haven found (or taken) the time to go back and get them online again, one by one.
June 22nd, 2020 at 10:12 am
Must be frustrating regarding the images. Technology in action. All in due time on the restorations, of course. Thanks for your efforts.