From the front cover:

''A constant source of pleasure'
John Sutherland, Sunday Times'

From the back cover:

''Carr's follow-up to The Alienist is just as good a read; a thrillingly macabre depths of turn-of-the-century New York ... bigger and more troubling than a mere thriller, and brilliantly maintains a ferocious grip'
Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday

In the sweltering summer of New York in 1897 a headless corpse bobs on the surface of the Hudson River. The United States is poised for war in Spain. And the child of a high-ranking enemy diplomat goes missing.

It is another delicate case for Dr Laszlo Kreizler, the renowned psychiatrist, and his posse of trusted aides, including the Isaacson brothers and the fearless Sara Howard, but in this new novel the cynical voice of the journalist John Moore has been replaced by the cautious optimism of young Stevie Taggert.

Stevie, a youth plucked by Kreizler from the city's slums, carries with him the sights, smells and sounds of the city, and through his astonishing narrative Carr's rich and moving second novel evokes the seething vitality of fin-de-siécle New York.

'Quite enthralling ... a novel which plays with but never insults the intelligence ... so shadowed with splendid period gloom, you could almost wear it intead of sun block on a bright, modern beach.'
Amanda Craig, The Times'



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