NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - THE BOOK BEHIND SEASON TWO OF TNT'S THE ALIENIST - Dr. Laszlo Kreizler returns in a "whopping thriller" (The Washington Post) that showcases Caleb Carr "at his strongest" (USA Today).
June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends--high-living crime reporter John Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime--have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case.
But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara's aid, the team reunites to help find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. Their investigation leads the team to a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children.
Once again, Caleb Carr proves his brilliant ability to re-create the past, both high life and low. Fast-paced and chilling,
The Angel of Darkness is a tour de force, a novel of modern evil in old New York.
Praise for The Angel of Darkness "A ripping yarn told with verve, intensity, and a feel for historical detail . . . Once again we are careening around the gaslighted New York that Carr knows, and depicts, so well."
--The New York Times Book Review "Gripping . . . Carr is at his strongest, exploring the dark underside of the human psyche and ferreting out the terrors and tragedies that drive men--and women--to kill. . . . In Libby Hatch, Carr has created a villain whose cunning is nearly equal to his detectives' crime-solving prowess. . . . The mystery is plotted with military precision."
--USA Today "[A] whopping thriller . . . Carr keeps us racing along with him to the very end."
--The Washington Post Book World "Fascinating . . . In a brilliant bit of historical casting, Clarence Darrow, a rising courtroom wizard from Chicago, turns up to defend the villain at a tense upstate New York murder trial."
--Time
