There is a great deal of suspense involved with the capture and conviction of the truly evil antagonist. I enjoyed this mystery even though it was dense, slow moving,and long. Carr didn’t go to the fantasy extremes of Helprin’s Winter’s Tale, but I had to allow myself to accept a bit of alternative history. How likely is it that a foreign diplomat would stay silent following the kidnapping of his daughter and beat his wife to prevent her from seeking help? Not to mention, Theodore Roosevelt’s appearance with the US Navy in the final act. They created a vibrant picture of the time and place, but were at the same time too fantastic to be believable. I thought there were many unlikely elements to this plot. The United States is on the brink of war with Spain, a political complication that forms an unlikely background for the story. The mystery begins in June 1897, with the kidnapping of a Spanish diplomat’s infant daughter. There are several historical characters integrated into the story, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the painters Albert Pinkham Ryder and Celia Beaux, Clarence Darrow, and a very unlikely finale appearance of Theodore Roosevelt. Lazlo Kreizler’s difficult murder investigations. It is told in the voice of an adult Stevie Taggert as he looks back on his own adolescence and recalls one of Dr.

This book returns to the characters that I enjoyed in The Alienist. At 770 pages it required a significant amount of time and effort even with a borrowed audiobook to move it along. It has been on my shelf ever since, in an ‘I’ll get to it sometime’ waiting zone of books that don’t have a library due date. I read The Alienist in 2008 and bought this book at a library sale soon after.

The angel of darkness by caleb carr