Rating: 
Summary: "Darkness" Engulfs
Review: Caleb Carr's "The Angel of Darkness" concerns itself not only with its central plot twist--the daughter of a foreign dignitary is kidnapped in New York City in 1899--but with questions of social justice and the role of women at that time. His skillful writing helps him to pull this all off, but "Angel" asks two questions key to the mystery: Why do we assume that women are nurturers and men are not? And how damaging is this assumption not only to society but to individual men and women?The villain is Libby Hatch, a woman with a string of catastrophes behind her, who kidnaps the daughter of a Spanish diplomat in the turbulent time preceding what will become the Spanish-American War. The desperate mother, denied help by her husband, seeks the services of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the "alienist" who has aroused the support and antagonism of so many authority figures in New York for his work with troubled children. Kreizler himself is in political hot water: an accident at the institute he runs has resulted in an investigation into his workings there, and he himself is prohibited from setting foot in the place for sixty days. That gives him plenty of time to head the search for baby Ana, and I can't reveal more of the story without having to unravel the entire plot. Suffice to say that all of the original characters from "The Alienist" return, and this time the story is told from the viewpoint of Stevie Taggert, Kreizler's 13-year-old ward. Carr does bring the dives and slums of New York to life; you can almost taste the noxious concoctions served up at the child-bars and brothels (buttered rum, cocaine shavings and benzene should have killed its consumers well within a year) as well as smell the odors (Hickie's flat, crammed with animals, made me gag just to think of it). But all of it is delivered in a pseudo-dialect that is just ungrammatical enough to sound like a poorly-educated adolescent. To be fair, it's a good "voice" and it enhances Stevie's credibility. But for myself, I found reading "Angel" a second and third time harder because I kept noticing the dialect instead of the story. The story will sound more than familiar to fans of true crime, particularly the Diane Downs case. That doesn't make it any less chilling. Nor does Carr let the reader forget his central premise of wrongful assumptions and spiritual damage. At points in the book, it feels as if the author wants to pound it into his readers' heads with a sledgehammer. But what truly makes this story work is Libby Hatch herself, a woman capable of extremes that will take your breath away. Carr does her a disservice by the cliched mode of her death--but Libby is a standout villain, someone who is neither entirely evil nor as good as she'd like others to think. If you're at all interested in Diane Downs, whose actions helped to inspire Carr's novel, I recommend Ann Rule's "Small Sacrifices" to read in tandem with "The Angel of Darkness." You will not regret the experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Thick plot with very good twists
Review: The Angel of Darkness was a book I had decided to read after 'The Alienist'. The beginning was more or less rather boring. Although, like 'The Alienist', I read on. What I read was a magnificant piece of literature. The story manages to pick up very quickly and Carr even manages to throw in a love story and a big trial. And to be quite honest I have never cried while watching, reading, or listening to anything in my whole life...until I read the end of this book. Carr truly has outdone himself this time around.
Rating: 
Summary: Ludicrous plot and characters
Review: This is an excellent example of the kind of book Raymond Chandler pokes fun of in his excellet essay, The Simple Art of Murder. The characters, plot, and dialogue are simply ridiculous, and don't hold water. The plot, far from being a page turner, is completely illogical. For example, after failing to rescue a kidnapped child who is, according to the experts in the story, in imminent danger of being murdered by her abductors, the protagonists give up and leave town for a few weeks. And we learn that the antagonist has attempted to murder her three children to receive their inheritance, but after only managing to kill 2 she leaves town instead of trying again. Each character is completely unbelievable. Being experts in multiple fields (except for the bumbling high class reporter who acts as a convenient foil) they are ubermensch (and wensch) that could only exist in an idealized fantasy situation. This does not make for excellent drama, except perhaps in the world of caped crusaders and lasso-toting Amazons. And the dialogue and writing is just pedestrian. Trying to write with the voice from that time period is difficult, and Carr fails spectacularly, sounding like a bad High School caricature attempt. All in all, a thoroughly disappointing work. Stay away, stay very far away from this.
Rating:
Summary: A Book You Don't Want to End!
Review: This is terrific read. A novel of old New York peopled with characters we come to love during the course of their investigation into the kidnapping of a womans child. I actually read this before I read "The Alienist", which is equally as good and introduces all these wonderful characters to the reader. Stevie tells the story this time (Moore narrated "The Alienist") as our group of friends use Dr. Kreizler's revolutionary methods to solve this mystery. He is an Alienist (early psychiatrist) and together with Moore, Sara, the Isaacsons, and Cyrus a riveting and at times edge of your seat adventure springs forth. Carr is so good that before you realize it you are in Old New York at the turn of the century and so in love with these people that you hate to leave them for sleep or work. The author does for Old New York and Psychiatry what John Dunning did for books in his Cliff Janeway series. At over 600 pages your interest never lags and is the case with all great books when that last page is turned it will be reluctantly. The characters are all to human and real, as is the time period. The solving of the Beechum case of "The Alienist" (which I also recommend) came at a great personal price to Dr. Kreizler, and in The Angel of Darkness Stevie will grow up and face tragedy of his own. Other writers who attempt to evoke a period mystery like this pale in comparison to Carr. You really are THERE in Old New York and Carr fleshes the characters out so that you actually care about each and every one of them. There are moments of action and suspense that keep you turning pages as quickly as you can read. The historical figures are not just "thrown in" to evoke the time period. Carr makes them come alive as well, just as he did with Dr. Kreizler's friend Theodore Roosevelt in "The Alienist". This will be one of the most entertaining books you will ever read but it is not without substance as well. If you want a great period mystery filled with danger and suspense and even tragic romance (I won't spoil it for you) then this is the book to get. Return to Delmonico's where great food is still served and your old friends (and they will be when you finish this book) are planning their next move against a kidnapper and a murderer of children in Old New York!
Rating:
Summary: absolutely amazing
Review: This sequel to The Alienist is told as a flashback by the now-adult Stevie Taggert, who, at age 11, was a former street urchin adopted by Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the alienist (or "psychologist") to work in his Institute in exchange for education in 1890s New York City. One of their cases involves bringing to justice a woman who employs herself as a nanny and then kills her charges. In order to do this before she kills the baby she has currently nabbed -- in this case the child of a diplomat -- they will have to seek out this woman's past in upstate NY to find the patterns of her next move so they can stop her before she makes it. This book is fascinating in its depiction of 1890s New York, crime and gang warfare, and a case taking place in the early days of forensic science, ballistics, and psychological analysis as courtroom evidence. Carr has also painted a graphic portrait of the suspect and her rather violent crimes. Again, don't be put off by the length of Carr's works -- it is an amazing read that you won't want to put down!
Rating: 
Summary: A good mystery and philosophy in one!
Review: This book was very good on several levels: The mystery itself is intriguing and sometimes edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. Especially as a New Yorker, I LOVE the description of New York City at the turn of the (previous) century. The littlest details add up to be very evocotavive. I also enjoyed the forensic and social history items. But most important was the psychological aspect. Without giving the plot away, it raises issues and can help people think about a current and very disturbing. criminal case. I'd read The Alienist so long ago that I barely remember it, but think this probably isn't quite as good. That's why it got a 4 rather than a 5.
Rating:
Summary: response to the disappointed
Review: caleb carr suggests in this psychological thriller that societal norms and rules regarding gender roles played an enormous role in the making of a serial killer. this seems to be unpopular with some amazon reviewers when the killer is a woman, although it matches the theories postulated by the first book, the alienist. first of all, to those who sum up the novel by stating that "the entire underlying premise of this book is that it's the fault of our 'male dominated, patriarchal society that Libby is a murdering psychopath, blah, blah, blah, blah,'": carr makes it VERY clear to readers [who are not fully prepared to dismiss this book as soon as it starts to "whine" about patriarchy] that the opinion elizabeth cady stanton expresses in the book - that it is society's fault and we cannot blame the woman - is NOT the novel's conclusion. in fact, the novel's perspective confronts and disputes this opinion as an over-simple and even adversarial/antagonistic notion of individuals within society. it is amusing, actually, that people who loved the first book could so easily miss the point of the second. it must have been the end of a long day. to those who have not read the book: if psychology interests you, or you enjoy long novels that paint vivid pictures of history and people, you might really enjoy this book. if you think that arguments-from-socialization regarding women are a crock, don't bother. the book is not about feminism, but like those who wrote disapproving reviews, it may spoil the whole book for you. read something about a man that won't require effort or strain your fragile brain.
Rating: 
Summary: Re-read The Alienist Instead...
Review: After whisking through the glorious Alienist novel, I couldn't wait to jump into Carr's sequel, The Angel of Darkness. I was disappointed, however, in many ways. First of all, the sequel is Stevie's attempt to match wits with Mr. Moore, who "wrote" the Alienist, and he fails miserably. The book has no pulse, no wit, no intellectually challenging material like its predecessor. As far as I can tell, The Alienist (the best book I've ever read) is for those of us who enjoy deep plots, great characters, and intelligent storylines and humor. The Angel of Darkness targets an audience who likes to simply get things spoon-fed to them without using their heads too much. I could hardly believe that these two books were written by the same person. Angel of Darkness constantly refers to the Beecham case, which was the plot of the first book, casually forgetting that this was a new case. It seemed to be pathetically admitting that it was not anywhere near as good as the Alienist, for it referred to the Beecham case almost every other page. Finally, about halfway through the book, the plot actually got to where it was pretty good. Carr's attempt to get us to see through the eyes of a small child, however, really put a damper on the entire novel, because it just wasn't the great mind of John Moore that we were looking through. If you ABSOLUTELY must read it, then fine. But remember that I warned you. Instead, just re-read the Alienist, which would be a much better way to spend your time.
Rating:
Summary: The Angel of Darkness
Review: I had high hopes for this book, as I enjoyed "The Alienist" very much. It was an overall disappointment, though still quite readable. I found it too often predictable, with passages whose outcomes were so obvious. Yet Mr. Carr would spell them out anyway, as if the readers couldn't surmise it on their own. I was also disappointed with his summation, in which we (theoretically) would discover the intricacies of the pathological mind of his killer. After all, Dr. Kreizler and his gang spent the better part of the book analyzing it themselves. When we're finally presented with the "why" of her crimes, the answer comes off as weak and uninteresting as yesterday's toast.
Rating:
Summary: Carr Still Shines
Review: It's hard to really say that this novel is better than Carr's The Alienist, because the first one was just so good. But, guaranteed, if you like The Alienist, you will certainly love this novel. Carr's portrayal of historical New York is superb and clear. What makes the historical side even more amazing is its accuracy, which is a testament to Carr's depth of research. This novel includes so many topics that it can fascinate just about anybody. Psychology, criminology, forensics, social issues, etc. And they are all woven together in one wonderful story. Carr's character development is quite sound, and it is really astounding how well he was able to capture female issues, such as maternity and social obligation, which are at the heart of this novel. The only problem is that Carr may have stretched a bit far in his casting. He not only includes the ubiquitous Theodore Roosevelt, but also Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clarence Darrow, and Vanderbilt II. That's quite a lineup for one small case. This is a wonderfully developed novel, and the suspense hightens with every sentence. One should read The Alienist first to get acquainted with the doctor, but those who have already read his first novel will certainly love this one.
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