This book is the sequel to The Alienist which I rated four stars. What I loved in that book was the sense of time and place--New York City during the "Gilded Age" of the 1890s. I loved the way Carr took us through a tour of my city through familiar streets and landmarks and loved the mix of mystery/thriller during an age when forensics, psychological and physical, was just emerging.
So what went wrong here in the sequel I'd rate it so much lower? Well, first, I think the choice of narrator was a mistake. In the first book, that was John Shuyler Moore, a New York Times reporter who was an integral part of the investigative team headed by his close friend Laszlo Kreizler, an "alienist," ie a psychologist. This story is the first person account of a character much more peripheral to the investigation, Stevie Taggert, a young street smart kid employed by Kreizler. Carr tries to create a voice for Stevie of an urban Huckleberry Finn, which seems to consist mostly of replacing "that" with "what" and it grates, especially in a work of this length. And because Stevie isn't part of the investigation, Carr has him do things such as eavesdrop on conversations and other clunky devices to allow him to tell us what happens.
And there's that length. I've often noticed that the problem with successful authors, from Stephen King to Tom Clancy, is that as a result of success they gain a lot more leeway which often leads to bloat--and this is the case with The Angel of Darkness. I found The Alienist at a bit less than 500 pages a fairly taut thriller--I certainly was never bored. That wasn't the case with the sequel, at almost 750 pages, which often dragged and I wasn't half-way before I was skipping to the end to find out what happened, since I was no longer willing to wade through hundreds of pages. Yes, I get it. Woman can be violent, can be evil, and the Victorian tendency to put them on a pedestal doesn't do any one any good. But really, Libby Hatch--and we learn her identity very early in the book killing any suspense--isn't anywhere near as fascinating to me as Carr seems to feel she is.
