Caleb Carr’s The Alienist chronicles a
fictional murder investigation in New York City at the end of the 19th century.
The quarry: a serial killer who has a penchant for the gruesome dispatch and
mulilation of homosexual prostitutes. The hunters: a covert special team
assembled by Theodore Roosevelt including a reporter, one of the first women to enter police service, two police detectives, and most pivitolly, a psychologist. The story is huge in scope, starting with the assembly of the team and then following
their adventures and reasoning as they assemble a profile of the killer. The
violence is quite graphic at some points and may put off the more sensitive
reader, but if you’ve the stomach for it, this is a marvelously engaging
book.