Rating: 
Summary: This book is GREAT!
Review: Caleb Carr has an original style of presenting this story. I really feel for the main character, Stevie Taggart. His descriptions made me feel like I was really there experiencing all the mayhem right along with them. Carr describes life in the late 1800's in a way that I can easily picture. I'm not usually into historical type books, but the inclusion of all the history, esp. Roosevelt, greatly added to the story. The gangs and description of the city, along with the way the characters spoke were intriguing. Also, young Stevie Taggart's point of view made me want to keep turning the pages!
Rating:
Summary: Detective/psycho-analytical profiling at its best!!!
Review: Caleb Carr not only has the ability to draw the reader into his characters he has the uncanny ability to predict what the reader is thinking and twist their imagination throughout the story. Who would have guessed he would bring back the awsome power of his "Dream Cast" of Sara,the Issacon's, Kriezler,Moore and others all told through the eyes of the "Stevepipe". I cannot advise others enough to read this novel, I gurantee it is destined for sure fire greatness among other literaty giants. Do yourself a favor and read this novel and be transported into the early 1900's, and into the world of detective reasoning and sure fire luck against a worthy adversary in, Mrs.Libby Hatch!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A poor sequel to "The Alienist".
Review: I looked forward to the sequel to "The Alienist", a book I thouroughly enjoyed but was sorely disappointed with " The Angel of Darkness". Although the story line was interesting and compelling, Mr. Carr's narrative device (using young Steve as the story teller) was incredibly annoying. It was impossible for Mr. Carr to maintain Steve's "voice" throughout the story. Steve's language changed from page to page - at times he spoke as if he were a well educated individual and at others times he sounded like a street kid. It was apparent that Mr. Carr felt that if he could insert the word "what" in place of "that" that it would take care of Steve's use of the vernacular. Incredibly annoying!In addition, Mr. Carr's freedom with the court proceedings, particularly Mr.Darrow's self-serving comments during his questioning of the witnesses, was completely unbelievable. The vast number of acknowledgments offered at the ene of the book only made me wonder why no one could offer better editing or suggestions.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointing
Review: I read and loved the Alienist and hoped for more of the same in Angel of Darkness. Angel did not come close to measuring up and I was very disappointed. I did not like Stevie as the narrator and would have preferred the character Moore's adult perspective instead. Stevie's use of "what" instead of "that" nearly drove me crazy. Also, Moore, a character I liked in the Alienist, was turned into a foolish, ignorant character who was almost entirely useless except for Carr's use of him to belabor a plot line. Also the character of El Nino was ridiculous and seemed to be nothing more than an embarrassing stereotype. He had the dimensionality of a cartoon character. So I was very disappointed in Angel and would not strongly recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating - a worthy followup to The Alienist
Review: I was sceptical about a sequel to The Alienist, but figured it was worth a shot since Carr had proved such an interesting author. Angel of Darkness didn't disappoint. I found myself immediately re-engaged with Dr. Kreizler, Stevie, Sara Howard, and the insufferable Mr. Moore. And like the characters, my perception of Libby/Elspeth was continually reshaped and challenged. My only complaint was the overuse of dramatic foreshadowing - it seemed Stevie open and closed nearly every chapter with "If I had only paid attention then," or "It would be a mistake we would soon come to regret most terribly," so on and so on. I love the anticipation, but after a point it revealed too much too early. That said, the book was a joy, and I ripped through the nearly-800 pages with a lot of fun & suspense.
Rating: 
Summary: A repeat for Carr!
Review: I found this book to be as enjoyable as the first. Similar format was used but I enjoyed having the story told from Stevie's point of view. It allows the reader a more indepth understanding of his personality and where he came from. I agree that the character of Libby Hatch wasn't as developed as the previous villain but was as eerie and evil just the same. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: A Sequel that Easily Surpassed It's Predecessor
Review: The first thing I feel I should point out about this book is that it is the very first book I have ever read that I felt deserved a FULL FIVE STARS. Congratulations, Mister Carr, it must seem fairly hard to impress a person such as myself. The Angel of Darkness, while still remaining true to the basic characters and time era as The Alienist, has easily surpassed it's prequel. Switching points of view from John Shuyler Moore to Stevie Taggert was a good choice, in my opinion, simply because it showed that different characters would have most likely told the story differently. As much as I am against constantly comparing a book to it's prequel, I must state that this title had a wonderful advantage of skipping all of the studying the investigators needed to partake in, due to the fact that it was already taken care of in the first book - which lead the story straight into the action. Speaking of action in this book, it did not take long for the action to pick up out and about throughout different locations - Hudson Duster territory, Saratoga gambling casinos, and even the Ballston Spa court rooms. As for the ending, which I have often stated is the most crucial part of a book, I greatly enjoyed the way Carr allowed emotions to take over and return a favorite character to help out in the end. This book simply has everything going for it: It has action, emotion, mystery, love, and suspense. People such as myself, who are fond of the late era, will expecially enjoy this book. My hat goes off to you, Caleb Carr, this was a book well worth reading. Five stars total, and Caleb Carr is an incredible author.
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Summary: Needed better/deeper analysis of Libby Hatch
Review: My favorite parts of this book were those in which the investigators (primarily Dr. Kreizler and Sara Howard) discussed the psychological motivations of various people and the then-unknown culprit. Very interesting. So why, then, miss the opportunity to go more in-depth with the villianess? A few sketchy clues given as to her "context" from the visit to her mother's home, but certainly not enough to give the reader any real indication of what drove her to manipulate and kill indiscriminately. Why this big hole? At the other extreme, why spend time developing characters like the eccentric old artist who then never heard from again? More time was given to descriptions of this character's lifestyle than was given to key characters such as Sara Howard. I don't get that. I hope that Carr will focus more on Kreizler getting to use his skills as an alienist in future novels. And yet, I do give this book four stars because, overall, I simply got a lot of enjoyment from it. The one part where I really groaned was the ending, which seemed to be lifted from a 1990s action-adventure film. Ouch.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is too long
Review: Angel of Darkness is well worth reading even if it has too many words and is too long.It does read rather quickly. Fascinating exploration of turn of the century interpretations of malicious behavior.
Rating:
Summary: Libby Hatch is a "Frankenstein" villain ...
Review: It's like Carr threw every case study of a female serial killer he could find into this characterization. The courtroom scene especially recalled the child victim in Ann Rule's Small Sacrifices. The only difference was the time period. All in all, it was an enjoyable, if wordy, book, but I kept picking out scenes that I'd read before in other case studies. A little more originality might not have been a bad idea.
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