Surprising good book with excellent characters...

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	• The Angel of Darkness Caleb Carr Ballantine Books, 1998 - 768 pages average customer review:based on 307 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Caleb Carr is wonderful.

Spell-bounding and heart-wrenching. I was swept back into a time of discovery that has shaped the contempary psychological hero's such Grisham on CSI. Their true predaccesor was Lazlo Kreizler, The turn of the century philanthopic psychologist who tests the bounds of society's precepts.( Can women be serial killers and still not have the right to vote?)

Disturbing

The team from the Alienist is out to stop a serial killer before she kills the young child who has been kidnapped in New York City. The team proves to their satisfaction that Libby Hatch did it by (among more legitimate methods) breaking into her home two times, and arranging to have her coat stolen so they can check it out for fingerprints and hair samples. Then, when the baby is in immenent danger, they check out Libby's psychological background in upstate NY and leave the primary investigation hang for several weeks. They initiate a court case against Libby in Saratoga county, where they indulge in grave robbing for the purpose of plainting evidence to prove Libby killed her 2 children. Then they have the gall to criticize Clarence Darrow for ruining the future of the legal profession? Why did they bother having a trial at all? Since they decided she was guilty, why didn't they just kill her in New York City?- which they kind of did at the end!
I gave this book 3 stars because I did enjoy the evocation of old New York, and I am familiar with Saratoga and Renssalaer counties. It didn't even bother me that Stevie was the narrator. But when I looked back on the whole story, it gave me a chill from the actions of all sides.

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Great sequel but still a sequel

With the action this time focused on Stevie Tagart the young ward/coach driver of "The Alienist" we are given a follow-up to the original novel that is strong in some area and weak in others. The case revolves around the missing daughter of a Spanish ambassador and after the initial 150 or so pages and it is determined who took the baby the story gets into a very interesting commentary on what people thought of the role of women at the turn of the century it's a question that people asked themselves then and ask themselves now "how can a women kill her own child."

The doctor and his gang don't have an answer to that one anymore then we do in the present day but interesting attempts are made to find an answer which culminates in an appearance by Clarence Darow of all people. After the trial section of the book gets started Carr is true to form and you'll be glad you have been so patient.

I think the main problem of the book deals with the differences in the cases between book 1 and 2 and all attempts by Carr to play up all the angles aside the Angle of Darkness just doesn't have the shock value that the other book had.

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Surprising good book with excellent characters...

I was pleasantly surprised how much I anticipated reading this book after reading his Alienist....He does an excellent job of identifying characters and situations. I am only sorry he has not done any other books in this style, besides Alienist. I have had a difficult time finding an author with similar writings. Will just keep hoping he does another book in this time frame, and in this fashion.

Very good

I am approaching this review with the viewpoint of reading this book and I have not read the alienist yet, and this book is basically the sequel. I did like this book enough to go back and read Carr's previous volume. Although this book stands reasonably alone, I think that I would have enjoyed and understood the first part of the book by reading the first. Once you "get into" this book, it runs along as a nice mystery until two thirds through, then morphs into a courtroom drama. It does a good job of both. In addition, Carr does a nice job of setting the story in late 19th century NYC. Worth reading.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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. . . .

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