I hardly need remind you how very many dangers inhabit this place.
The Alienist
by Caleb Carr
Genre: Psychological Thriller
About: Set in the 1890s, a serial killer is on the hunt in New York City. To catch the fiend, Theodore Roosevelt enlists the help of an alienist, a reporter, two budding forensics officers, and a woman with two pistols in her purse...
The Good
You'll feel you're truly stepping back in time with this one. The murders are gruesome, the stakes high, and everything comes across as very authentic. It's just over 500 pages of what feels like a very detailed portrait of New York in the 1890s. A man's world, but despite the Gentleman's Club style given by our narrator, we do get a female lead in a Miss Sara Howard. She's often a step ahead and showcases a good mix of sarcasm and heart.
The Bad
The tone might come across as odd at times. Mutilated bodies get discussed in between descriptions of how delicious the turtle soup is and lamb a la Colbert. The characters are living the life and sometimes feel a sense of urgency to solve the crime, other times they'll be enjoying a good opera.
It also isn't really a thriller. Not by today's standard anyway. But it isn't meant to be a page turner; instead, this is a page thinker which layers in very early ideas of psychological theory.
The Somewhat Iffy
Strangely, the killer doesn't factor much in the story by the end. We of course get the psychological profile, but, by the climax and overall conclusion of the investigation, the sense I inevitably felt was that this person didn't matter. Which is not what you really want for your main antagonist.
Overall
This is pretty much a friendship novel navigating 'new' forensic techniques and psychological profiling. Not a thriller, but an interesting read nonetheless. Though if you want to give the book a miss, the Netflix show is well cast and highly addictive.
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