Dr. Laszlo Kreizler

Best-selling author Caleb Carr deftly combines historical detail with spine-tingling chills. The year is 1896, and a serial killer is loose in New York City. His targets are poor young boys working as transvestite prostitutes. The general public has little interest in the victims, but Chief of Police Theodore Roosevelt wants the murderer stopped. He assembles a clandestine group of amateur detectives to track the killer, but there are powerful forces at work who don’t want the crimes solved.

Caleb Carr's The Alienist quickly became a national best-seller, drawing critical acclaim for its masterful blending of historical detail, mesmerizing atmosphere, and thrilling suspense. Also a New York Times best-seller, The Angel of Darkness further seals Carr's reputation as a master craftsman. Set in the New York of 1897, it is the story of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, noted psychological consultant on criminal cases, and his pursuit of Libby Hatch, a villain of almost superhuman cunning.

In The Angel Of Darkness, Caleb Carr brings back the vivid world of his bestselling The Alienist but with a twist: this story is told by the former street urchin Stevie Taggert, whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Thus New York City, and the groundbreaking alienist Dr. Kreizler himself, are seen anew. It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends -- high-living crime reporter Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime -- have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case. But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara's aid, the team reunites to help her find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. Their investigation leads the team to a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children. Fast-paced and chilling, The Angel Of Darkness is another tour de force from Caleb Carr, a novel of modern evil in old New York.