The Angel Of Darkness: Number 2 in series (Laszlo Kreizler & John Schuyler Moore) - Softcover

Carr, Caleb

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751522759 ISBN 13: 9780751522754

Publisher: Sphere, 1999

Synopsis

A year after the events narrated in the bestselling THE ALIENIST, the cast of characters from that novel are again brought together to investigate a crime committed in the heady days of New York in the 1890s, but this time narrated by the orphan Stevie Taggert. A young child, the daughter of Spanish diplomats, disappears. It seems she has been abducted but no ransom note is received and the detectives Isaacson quickly discover that a nurse, Elspeth Hunter, is probably the kidnapper. They also discover that Hunter has been a little too closely connected with the death of three other infants. But what are her motives? She married a fortune, and although she is connected to some fairly rough villains this crime does not fit their modus operandi. Is it something as 'simple' as psychological disturbance due to her own inability to bear children, or something more sinister unguessed at?

About this title

Review:

Portraying New York City circa 1897 as a time bomb of political corruption and violence, Caleb Carr returns to familiar territory in The Angel of Darkness, the sequel to his international bestseller, The Alienist. Also a stand-alone novel, The Angel of Darkness brings together the same cast of characters from The Alienist but the relating of their recent psychological investigation has shifted from John Moore to 13-year-old Stevie Taggert. Abandoned by his drug addict mother, raised on the streets and in love with a teenage prostitute, Stevie's narration brings to the novel a tender combination of streetwise nonchalance and a tentative optimism that has been fostered by Dr Laszlo Kriezler's care. But even Stevie isn't prepared for the case of Libby Hatch--a dangerous caretaker who leaves in her wake a trail of dead children and who has kidnapped the child of a Spanish diplomat. Racing against the clock of Libby's psychosis and a legal system that has blinkered itself to such atrocities, the group struggle to find the key that will reveal Libby's murderous nature. A fascinating exploration of the very modern theme of motherhood and its role in society, The Angel of Darkness is a taut, page-turning thriller set against a gloomy Dickensian backdrop of crime and depravation. --Shannon Bingham

Review:

Carr's follow-up to THE ALIENIST is just as good a read; a thrillingly macabre drive into the fetid depths of turn-of-the-century New York ... A triumph of research, it is also a triumph of imagination, express and feeling... brilliantly maintains a ferocious grip. (MAIL ON SUNDAY)

Quite enthralling ... a novel with plays with but never insults the intelligence. (THE TIMES)

The sureness of the historical sensibility elevates THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS above genre fiction. (TLS)

Carr brings enormous gusto to his portrait of old New York... the city seems to rise off the page. (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

About this edition

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0751522759
• ISBN 13: 9780751522754
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 816