Atmospheric, chilling, and tense, The Alienist is a good tale, well told, of the hunt to find a serial killer targeting boy prostitutes in 1896. 

Narrated by John Schuyler Moore, a New York Times reporter, the team (secretly working for Theodore Roosevelt, then the New York City Police Commissioner), is of the “ragtag band of misfits” variety, including Sara Howard, a bright, brave, and ambitious woman; Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, a pair of brilliant and quarrelsome Jewish twins; Laszlo Kriezler (the alienist of the title); Cyrus Montrose, Kriezler’s Black servant (whom he’d rescued from incarceration or institutionalization); and Stevie Taggert, a teenager (rescued from the streets and employed by Kriezler as a servant and carriage driver). 

They’re all surprisingly (or maybe not too surprisingly, considering their circumstances) broad-minded.

***

This thriller is a bit more literary and historical than most, Caleb Carr having a background as a historian, and many historical figures appear in its pages. 

Besides Roosevelt and his family there’s the reformer Jacob Riis, anthropologist Franz Boas (at the Museum of Natural History, naturally), and financier J.P. Morgan, among others.  

William James doesn’t make a direct appearance in the narrative, but taught Moore, Roosevelt, and Kriezler at Harvard, and influenced their thoughts and understandings greatly.

The mobsters depicted were real, as were the religious leaders, the government officials, and the other serial killers described, and so were the settings: notorious nightclubs, brothels, tenements, the fine dining establishment Delmonico’s, the old Metropolitan Opera House. 

The beginning of forensic science was also real. It’s a rather immersive look at New York City in the not-too-distant past: corrupt, violent, divided between rich and poor, beautiful, dirty, messy, and a cultural and intellectual center.  

***

As the team begins to understand the psychology and profile of the killer, they race against time in an attempt to prevent more murders. As is often the case, meaningful reform is difficult as society resists change. Many powerful people profit from rampant criminality. The press, the public, and even many of the reformers are too squeamish to acknowledge the realities of the streets. The crimes, as well as the existence of the investigative team, are covered up. 

I can’t help but see parallels to the AIDS crisis which was still ongoing when The Alienist was being written and published. 

Silence=Death, as the famous poster stated back in 1987.

Many things change in a hundred years. And many things don’t.

***

Read this one while you’re home, self-isolating, preferably in front of a warm fire in a comfortable chair, safe and sound. (And maybe think about making a donation to an anti sex-trafficking organization.) You may end up staying up late…I finished this one at 2:00 A.M., amazed at how the time had flown by.

***

HOW TO PURCHASE: Amazon

NOVEL: The Alienist

AUTHOR: Caleb Carr

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1994

LEAD-IN IMAGE

Book cover, The Alienist, published by Penguin Random House