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The Alienist
Caleb Carr
#UE5702
Paperback, 498 pages; 2006 (1994)
$16.00
 Members' Price: $13.60
It's turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York City, and a young male prostitute's grotesquely mutilated body is found on the construction site of the new Williamsburg Bridge. Journalist John Moore is summoned by his old friend Dr. Lazlo Kriezler--a pioneer in the budding and controversial field of psychology--to help the "alienist" build a psychological portrait of the killer, whose list of victims is growing by the week. Working outside of (and often against) the corrupt NYPD, the men's secret criminal task force is aided by the new police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt. As a complex portrait of a depraved killer begins to emerge, the civilian detectives must contend with dangerous gangsters, crooked cops, slimy politicians, angry immigrant mobs, and more--all the while in a race to prevent another brutal murder. If, like me, you missed this intelligent and pulse-quickening historical thriller when it was first published in 1994, you'll want to give Caleb Carr's modern classic of the genre a try--as long as you're not too squeamish about gritty details.
(AG)
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