Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! A deffinate must for anyone who likes to read!
Review: A thriller so intense it holds it's reader with an intense passion and query up to the very last page. The natural instinct that a mother has toward her child, love, devotion, and the desire to do only good for the child. But what do you do when that instinct is not what you think it is, a desire to kill? That is what Dr. Laszlo Kreizler and his colleagues faced when they undertake the investigation involving the kidnapping of small child. What starts out as a kidnapping ends in a full scale investigation...and the discovery of one women's terrifying past, one that will defy the belief of what a nuturing mother is. -----I absolutely devoured this book, the best I have read in a long time. I would definatly recoment it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Questionable Ending Detracts from Otherwise Wonderful Novel
Review: Carr wove quite an entertaining, gripping, page turner for the majority of the novel. He connects a number of complications into the tale very well my only gripe is the introduction of the Navy towards the final few chapters. While Dr. Kreizler more than likely would have known Theodore Roosevelt the added complication of the US Navy invading NYC for one women, however dangerous, does not border on the absurd but is a full scale invasion of the ludicrous. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the work.
Rating:
Summary: It was great
Review: This book was wonderfully written as well as specifically detailed. I do have to admit that Caleb Carr is my favorite author...however this book just fuels my passion for his writing. I really enjoyed the suspense and energy that was put into this novel. I hear it is becoming a movie...I would love to be in it. Everyone should read The Angel of Darkness.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreadful. Doesn't even qualify as good trash.
Review: The Alienist was (fairly) well-written fluff. It came close to the edges of my implausability tolerance now and then, but it was a good read. The Alienist reminded me a little of The Clan of the Cave Bear: a fictional character is set into history and winds up making all kinds of miraculous discoveries that actually weren't made until quite a bit later, but hey, it makes for a good story. The Angel of Darkness is essentially the same story, except this time the prose is a little harder to slog through, the characters are a touch more annoying, the situations are a trifle more improbable. That's not the problem, though. The problem was that I raced through the entire book as if it were this wonderful page-turner, and it wasn't until I started skipping pages at the end that I realized how unrelentingly awful it was. It's just dumb. There's no other way to describe it. It's sort of about a killer who demonstrates Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, except it's not really about that. The book never quite gets there; it just comes up with this big mess. The author should have quit, gone back to the drawing board, figured out why this woman was killing all these kids, maybe eliminated a few of the murders that never made any sense to begin with, and scrapped the damn Filipino midget with the poison darts. Oh, boy, did I hate this book. I was going to do a big feminist analysis of the premise, and compare it to the book I read last time I got sick (When She Was Bad, a flawed but still interesting examination of the way the criminal justice system treats women). But I just realized that I have now put more thought into Caleb Carr's book than he did. And that's too damn much.
Rating:
Summary: dragged on and on and on...
Review: A few days ago, I picked up this book again after having bought it sometime last year. Initially, i had gotten through the first 50 pages or so and found it so tedious that I simply tossed it aside. But, I gave it another try. I still found the beginning poorly set up and not captivating in the least. Once ensconsed in the story, however, I had to get through it. Several things really bothered me - first was Stevie's constant use of "what" in place of "that." I am guessing that it was the colloquial way of language 100 years ago, but I never once got used to it and I tried to just train myself to read "that" whenever "what" appeared. My other major complaint was the excessive use of foreshadowing - I felt like every chapter ended with something like "If only we had known then what we soon would..." or "That would turn out to be one of our gravest mistakes.." or something just as cliched and pointless. If the foreshadowing had been eliminated, the book would be about 200 pages shorter. The story had decent potential, and - trimmed down - could have been quite riveting. But the lack of character development, the excessive language, and the endless plot twists ruined this book. The Alienist was one of my favorites...but the Angle of Darkness didn't conjure much favor from me.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing sequel
Review: I had so much hope for this book after reading the Carr's first book The Alienist. This book however lacked all the elements that made the first on so good. Missing was the in depth psychological profiling, the search for the villian and the anticipation of the climax. This book also did not develop the characters from the first book any further and I did not remember the character of John being as stupid in the first book as he was made out to be in this one. If your looking for a fairly interesting tale with some good description of turn of the century New York this would be a good read. If you loved the first book and are looking a good sequel then pass this one by.
Rating: 
Summary: The Alienist was better
Review: ALTHOUGH A REALLY GOOD BOOK IN ITS OWN RIGHT, THE FOLLOW UP TO THE ALIENIST DID NOT LIVE UP TO THE HEIGHTS OF ITS PREDECESSOR. PART OF THE PROBLEM IS THAT, HAVING ESTABLISHED A STRONG SET OF CHARACTERS IN THE ALIENIST, THEY ARE NOT REALLY DEVELOPED FURTHER IN 'DARKNESS', EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF THE NARRATOR, STEVIE TAGGART. ALSO, THE FEEL OF THE BOOK IS LET DOWN BY HAVING MORE THAN HALF OF IT SET IN RURAL NEW YORK STATE RATHER THAN IN THE HELL-HOLES OF NEW YORK CITY WHICH - AS DESCRIBED IN THE ALIENIST - WERE EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT PLACES. ONE FINAL MINOR QUIBBLE - MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE I'M NOT AMERICAN, BUT THE ALMOST REVERENTIAL TREATMENT OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT TOWARDS THE END OF THE NOVEL WAS A LITTLE IRRITATING. NEGATIVE COMMENTS ASIDE, CARR IS AN EXCELLENT STORYTELLER, DISPLAYING STRONG SYMPATHIES FOR HIS CHARACTERS AND WRITING INTELLIGENT BUT ACCESSIBLE PROSE. I LOOK FORWARD TO MORE TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY THRILLERS FROM THIS WRITER, BUT PERHAPS WITH A NEW CAST OF CHARACTERS.
Rating:
Summary: A kick-butt book!
Review: This was an awesome book! I loved it! Mr. Carr grabbed my attention and kept it by the throat the first page. He is a very talented author. I also enjoyed The Alienist immensely! Keep up the good work Mr. Carr! I just wonder if maybe a next book will be told from Sarah or Dr. Kriezler's point of view. Maybe even Cyrus'. =)
Rating:
Summary: Utterly predictable - a very poor sequel to the Alienist
Review: Having read and enjoyed the Alienist, I looked forward to Carr's sequel. I was sorely disappointed. The use of Stevie as the narrator was nothing short of irritating. Apart from the persistant and infuriating use of "what," the narrator rarely displayed the perspective of a streetwise adolescent boy. Moore was transformed from a complex character to a bumbling idiot and all the rest of the characters were reduced to one dimensional shadows of what they had been in the Alienist. As this book dragged on it became easy to predict the reaction of each individual in "our group" to the unfolding events. Mr. Carr demonstrates a troubling tendency towards stereotyping. For example, El Nino is the loayl 'aborigine' ready to do the bidding of his western masters, while Cyrus is the noble, musical 'Negro.' Neither, however, fare as poorly as the Irish who are portrayed as either devious and conniving (as in the Alienist) or as violent drunks (Angel of Darkness). Ironically, such stereoyping may be the only thing that has a ring of late nineteenth century authenicity in this book! The Alienist was a fine book which really captured the atmosphere of late nineteenth century New York. The Angel of Darkness appears to be a hasty sequel which fails to carry through on the promise of the first book.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: Not as good as The Alienist but still a fine novel. The characters are wonderful and the New York of the 1890's is beautifully brought to life. Mr. Carr is a marvelous story teller and I enjoyed this book very much. I look forward to the next adventure of the doctor, Steveie, Sara, et al! I already miss them.
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