A new breed of evil in Old New York
New York, 1986: Lower Manhattan's underworld is ruled by a new generation of cold-blooded criminals...Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt battles widespread corruption within the department's ranks...and a shockingly brutal murder sets off an investigation that could change crime-fighting forever.
In the middle of a wintry March night, New York Times reporter John Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a brilliant pioneer in the new and much-maligned discipline of psychology, the emerging study of society's "alienated" mentally ill. There they view the horribly mutilated body of a young boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels. Supervised by Commissioner Roosevelt, the newsman and his "alienist" mentor embark on a revolutionary attempt to identify the killer by assembling his psychological profile -- a dangerous quest that 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.
As rich in vivid period ambience as Ragtime and Time and Again, and as relentlessly suspenseful as Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs, The Alienist will take you to a New York that no longer exists -- to confront an evil of timeless savagery.
This was a nostalgia read. I first read this book 20 or so years ago when it came out and it still stands out as one of the best books I've ever read.
Set in 1890s NYC, an alienist (or a psychologist in modern terms) and his friends set out to solve the murders of several "boy-whores" - children who dress as women and sell their bodies in debauched bars in the city. What I enjoyed is that so much of NYC's history is tied up in the story, from Teddy Roosevelt's stint as police commissioner to the landmarks still standing today to the city's notorious gangsters stirring up trouble. The plot is a taut thriller than builds slowly as the investigation goes from clue to clue to build a psychological profile of a killer and tracking him down. And that's what I think appeals to me most; there's no "stumbling onto the killer" moment; the groundwork is laid, and that's what leads them to the killer. It's a very well written mystery rich in detail without being dry and stilted.
A great novel and I enjoyed revisiting the world of Kreizler, Moore and Sara.
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2 July, 2015:
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