About the Book:

The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or “alienist.” On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan’s infamous brothels.

The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler’s intellect and Moore’s knowledge of New York’s vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology– amassing a psychological profile of the man they’re looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.

Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian’s exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society’s belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I frequently have a lot of trouble reading mystery stories.  I enjoy them, but after about one or two — they all start to sound like the same plot, and they become predictable.  The usual frazzled detective, usually run down on his luck, and out of sorts with the department looking for the most amazing killer to have come along in a long time.  The woman who the detective falls in love with — and is about to become the next victim.  After a while they all start to sound the same.  That is when I started getting into true crime reading.

However,  this book is very unique.  Set in the early days of forensic investigation, Dr. Lazlo Kreizler is called upon by the newly elected police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, to investigate a new phenomenon in New York.  Not only does this story explore the rise of serial killers in this country — but it also pits Dr. Lazlo Kreizler and his unique team against a seriously twisted, and evil killer.  The tools that this unique team uses to find the killer is not the traditional detective meth0ds of investigation — but they are exploring a new theory.  The theory of Dr. Kreizler’s that suggests that a criminal can be caught by understanding the criminal mind, through the study of the victims.  And hence, the early birth of forensic profiling is born.

What made this book so unique in the mystery genre is that the characters are so not what you would expect them to be.  Dr. Kreizler, who leads this crack team of investigators is an alienist by trade — the early version of a psychiatrist.  Also on his team are an investigative reporter, a team of twin officers on loan from the New York police department — considered weird for their unusual investigative style — even among their own, and a secretary from the New York City police force that is seeking to make her break into the man’s world of criminal investigation.

This story has all the thrills of not only a true murder mystery, but is set at the turn of the century, and gives it the old world type feel — in the days when investigation was more than fingerprints, microscopes, blood samples, and DNA.  It also has all the twists and turns of exploring the criminal mind — the question behind why a criminal kills — and not just who the criminal is.

For someone that finds mystery novels burdensome in the extreme due to their predictability — I found this book refreshing, and enjoyable to read.

About the Book:

The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or “alienist.” On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan’s infamous brothels.

The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler’s intellect and Moore’s knowledge of New York’s vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology– amassing a psychological profile of the man they’re looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.

Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian’s exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society’s belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I frequently have a lot of trouble reading mystery stories.  I enjoy them, but after about one or two — they all start to sound like the same plot, and they become predictable.  The usual frazzled detective, usually run down on his luck, and out of sorts with the department looking for the most amazing killer to have come along in a long time.  The woman who the detective falls in love with — and is about to become the next victim.  After a while they all start to sound the same.  That is when I started getting into true crime reading.

However,  this book is very unique.  Set in the early days of forensic investigation, Dr. Lazlo Kreizler is called upon by the newly elected police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, to investigate a new phenomenon in New York.  Not only does this story explore the rise of serial killers in this country — but it also pits Dr. Lazlo Kreizler and his unique team against a seriously twisted, and evil killer.  The tools that this unique team uses to find the killer is not the traditional detective meth0ds of investigation — but they are exploring a new theory.  The theory of Dr. Kreizler’s that suggests that a criminal can be caught by understanding the criminal mind, through the study of the victims.  And hence, the early birth of forensic profiling is born.

What made this book so unique in the mystery genre is that the characters are so not what you would expect them to be.  Dr. Kreizler, who leads this crack team of investigators is an alienist by trade — the early version of a psychiatrist.  Also on his team are an investigative reporter, a team of twin officers on loan from the New York police department — considered weird for their unusual investigative style — even among their own, and a secretary from the New York City police force that is seeking to make her break into the man’s world of criminal investigation.

This story has all the thrills of not only a true murder mystery, but is set at the turn of the century, and gives it the old world type feel — in the days when investigation was more than fingerprints, microscopes, blood samples, and DNA.  It also has all the twists and turns of exploring the criminal mind — the question behind why a criminal kills — and not just who the criminal is.

For someone that finds mystery novels burdensome in the extreme due to their predictability — I found this book refreshing, and enjoyable to read.