The Angel of Darkness-Caleb Carr

Ok, seriously…if you like mystery/crime novels at all, Caleb Carr is your author! After reading The Alienist, I wasn’t sure that Carr could hold my attention for another 600+ pages…but he did!

Carr’s second book about Dr. Kriezler and his team is just as good as the first at keeping your attention and making you want to turn the page. This book was written from the point-of-view of a different team member than The Alienist which helped keep the narrative fresh and just different enough from the first book to keep reader interest without having to introduce an entirely new narrator.

I was discussing these two books with my brother, Jeremiah (who read them both as well) and we both felt that as dark and depraved as The Alienist was, The Angel of Darkness felt even darker and perhaps even more depraved. We agreed that this was because in the second book, Carr plays on our own assumptions about the differences between men and women, and oftentimes these assumptions are so fundamental to our understanding of the world around us that to have them questioned is not only unnerving, but as human beings we refuse to even address the idea that these assumptions could possibly be wrong. A theme that Carr does an excellent job of addressing in The Angel of Darkness.

I cannot express how excited I am for the TNT series The Alienist to begin next Monday (although, those of you who know me will probably have an idea of how over-the-top excited I can get…probably to be let down later) but I refuse to curb my enthusiasm! Seven days and counting…