My Thoughts on the Novel, The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 2)...

I’m glad I finished the streaming series of The Alienist, which included (most of) the plot from The Angel Of Darkness in Season 2, before I read TAOD.

Needless to say, there were several significant changes from the book to the small screen, which is why the novel kept my attention from the beginning.

But I’d rather not talk about said changes—I’d rather discuss the book itself.

The same team of investigators is brought together as was in the first novel, this time at a point in American History where tensions between Spain and the U.S. were reaching a boiling point—the turn of the 20th Century. The infant daughter of a Spanish Consulate is kidnapped, and the distraught mother hires the detective agency of Sarah Howard, who initially offers her “research services” to women only, to find the baby and return her.

What ensues is a long investigation that reaches from lower Manhattan up the Hudson River to Syracuse, New York. Novel forensic techniques, as well as new-for-the-time psychological advancements, are, of course, at play here as they were in the first novel. As a refreshing twist, the novel is narrated by the youngest member of the team (who was much older when he penned the tale), former street urchin and petty criminal Steve “Stevepipe” Taggert. His innocent yet world-weary observations further the plot along nicely, adding scenes and asides of character development, and twists along the way.

One would think that the serial killer John Beecham from the first novel would be hard to top, but Caleb Carr did so here with Libby Hatch, brutal murderess and devious criminal. She would, literally, stop at nothing—including infanticide—to reach her goals. Her crimes dotted the small towns and villages of the Hudson River Valley until they, ultimately, brought her to New York City.

I recommend this novel to fans of historical fiction and mystery. As I mentioned before, it is saddening to know that Caleb Carr died before he could contribute more to what was sure to become a promising series.