The Alienist by Caleb Carr

 

So at the beginning of this year(2024) I put together a puzzle:

I decided I wanted to read all of the books represented in this Mystery book puzzle. This is the second one I have read.

REVIEW

Alienist: a psychiatrist who assesses the competence of a defendant in a court of law.

In a way I guess I would call The Alienist a psychological mystery. The characters were:

An Alienist

A Reporter

A woman secretary

Two police detectives

The goal is to find out who is killing young children of the streets of New York City. Using Dr. Laszlo Kreizler's unorthodox technique of building a psychological profile of the killer John Moore(the reporter), Sara(the police secretary who wants to be the first woman police officer) and the two police detectives put together a profile that leads them right to the killer. Unfortunately there are hurdles to jump before the killer is caught. For he must be caught and not killed so that Dr. Kreizler can study him! But difficulties come from other avenues as well. There are powers that be that do not want the killer caught because it would be detrimental to their hold on their criminal activities. From crooked police officers, to mob bosses, to even the religious venues, all have a reason for the killer to continue doing his evil deeds. As the bodies mount and Kreizler, John, Sara and the detectives get closer the danger to themselves and those they are closest to mounts. Will they be able to stop a killer before he strikes again or before one of them gets hurt beyond repair? 

Soooo, an interesting story. That kind of drug on and on! Four hundred and eighty-eight pages to be exact! Whew! I enjoyed the way they built a psychological profile of the killer. The steps they took to find who was behind the murders. I liked some of the "real" characters that were represented, Theodore Roosevelt as the police commissioner, along with some of the mob bosses that were popular in "the day." The description of the seedy sides of New York City with what we would call child trafficking nowadays was interesting and also sad. I found the ending a bit unsatisfying, but for the most part it was a good read.