Gabrielle (Reading Rampage)'s Reviews > The Alienist

This book has so many elements that my twisted little brain loves: Gilded Age New York, historical elements intertwined with the fictional aspects, a serial killer... While this story takes place in Edith Wharton’s New York, a sordid murder investigation takes us places her characters wouldn’t be caught dead in: the underground world of the “flesh trade” and the lunatics’ asylums! The mutilated body of a young “rent boy” is found on the construction site of the Williamsburg bridge, prompting police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to summon two old friends from Harvard to help crack the case: John Moore, a reporter, and the enigmatic Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a reputed alienist. With the help of a very ambitious secretary and two modern-thinking sergeant-detectives, they will race against the clock to catch the killer before he leaves more bodies behind – by figuring out why he does what he does. I've always had a fascination for criminal psychology, and “The Alienist” is set right at the time when forensic psychology and science really started taking shape. Add to that a nice layer of political, social and cultural tensions, the risky business of dealing with the criminal underworld and the well-timed revelation of the characters’ background and you get what I consider to be quite a treat.

While Dr. Kreizler doesn’t have Sherlock Holmes’ panache, I still loved him: a man devoted to expanding knowledge, doing right by people and catching bad guys in a no-nonsense, single-minded manner. The way he builds this image of a person capable of committing the horrible crimes he investigates, and fleshes out a detailed portrait of their history and motivation is a fascinating process, and wonderfully described to help the reader put the pieces together along with the narrator (yes the homage to the Holmes and Watson dynamic is obvious but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…). I also admired his compassion: the way he treats his patients, and the former patients now in his employ, made him wonderfully human, something many brilliant detective characters don’t really seem to be…

I am still not convinced that the character of Sara wasn’t added to this story simply as the token woman character: yes, she is smart, determined and gives the investigation a very solid lead with her perspective, but I guess I expected her to be even more active and groundbreaking…

I read a few reviews where the slow plot was commented on, and I was surprised because I actually found it really hard to put down. It was not a break-neck pace, but there was always something interesting happening at the turn of the page (maybe you have to love meticulously detailed puzzles to find that fun, I don’t know…), which mercifully balanced out the history lesson Carr sometimes felt necessary to pad his story with. While the writing is often riveting, it sometimes lapses into historical info-dumping, when the narrator introduces a historical character: the biographies could almost be Wikipedia articles, which is a bit grating. The use of foreshadowing, while occasionally cheesy, definitely accomplished its goal of making me go “dammit, I can’t stop reading now!” a few times.

Overall, a smart, fun, but imperfect historical murder mystery about the inherited cycle of violence with a Henry James backdrop. I’m curious about the sequel…