The Alienist
by Caleb Carr | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0679417796 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0679417796 Global Overview for this book
2 journalers for this copy...
Picked up this nice hardback for $2 from Goodwill today. From the jacket:
The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or "alienist." On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels.
The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler's intellect and Moore's knowledge of New York's vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology-- amassing a psychological profile of the man they're looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.
Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian's exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.
12-18-12 ETA: Promised to hostile17 in the Wish List Tag game.
The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or "alienist." On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels.
The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler's intellect and Moore's knowledge of New York's vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology-- amassing a psychological profile of the man they're looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.
Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian's exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.
12-18-12 ETA: Promised to hostile17 in the Wish List Tag game.
After a bit of a slow start, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is a mystery set in the late 19th Century in New York. The author is a historian as well as a novelist, and although I do not really know enough to see any potential errors I felt that he painted a fascinating and accurate portrait of the city at the turn of the century. Some real historical figures are on hand in this tale, with Theodore Roosevelt as NYC police commissioner chief among them, but the narrator, Moore, and the alienist himself are fictional. Someone is murdering child prostitutes, but society and the establishment turn a blind eye to the fact of homosexuality and boy prostitutes, so no one is interested in catching the killer until Roosevelt brings in his unorthodox team of individuals, including police officers, a police secretary, a reporter, and the alienist of the title, to investigate. They use cutting edge methods, such as profiling and fingerprinting to search for the killer.
It's a well-told story, although it got off to a rocky start with one of the early deductions that the team made and which didn't sit right with me. They surmise that the killer must be exceptionally tall since one of the young vitims was killed by a downward blow to the head. As soon as they came to this conclusion, I started saying, "what if the kid was sitting down? what if the killer was on a ledge or stair?" Their conclusive decision about this characteristic of the killer seemed flawed to me. But I let that go and nothing sprung out at me as being "off" for the rest of the book. Considering the detail and scope of the story, I guess that's a small issue, but it did stick with me.
Anyway, I enjoyed the book and am now ready to pass it along to hostile17, which I hope to do in the next few days.
It's a well-told story, although it got off to a rocky start with one of the early deductions that the team made and which didn't sit right with me. They surmise that the killer must be exceptionally tall since one of the young vitims was killed by a downward blow to the head. As soon as they came to this conclusion, I started saying, "what if the kid was sitting down? what if the killer was on a ledge or stair?" Their conclusive decision about this characteristic of the killer seemed flawed to me. But I let that go and nothing sprung out at me as being "off" for the rest of the book. Considering the detail and scope of the story, I guess that's a small issue, but it did stick with me.
Anyway, I enjoyed the book and am now ready to pass it along to hostile17, which I hope to do in the next few days.
Sent via Media Mail to hostile17 today.
Received in the mail today.
Thank you very much for tagging me.
Thank you very much for tagging me.
