The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1) by Caleb Carr (Epub)

Description

When The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere.

The year is 1896. The city is New York. Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. From there the two embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again before their hunt is over.

Fast-paced and riveting, infused with historical detail, The Alienist conjures up Gilded Age New York, with its tenements and mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. It is an age in which questioning society’s belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and fatal consequences.

Praise for The Alienist

“[A] delicious premise . . . Its settings and characterizations are much more sophisticated than the run-of-the-mill thrillers that line the shelves in bookstores.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Mesmerizing.”—Detroit Free Press

“The method of the hunt and the disparate team of hunters lift the tale beyond the level of a good thriller—way beyond. . . . A remarkable combination of historical novel and psychological thriller.”—The Buffalo News

“Engrossing.”—Newsweek

“Gripping, atmospheric . . . intelligent and entertaining.”—USA Today

“A high-spirited, charged-up and unfailingly smart thriller.”—Los Angeles Times

“Keeps readers turning pages well past their bedtime.”—San Francisco Chronicle

User’s Reviews

Review “A first-rate tale of crime and punishment that will keep readers guessing until the final pages.”—Entertainment Weekly “Caleb Carr’s rich period thriller takes us back to the moment in history when the modern idea of the serial killer became available to us . . . [and] tracks the efforts of a team of farsighted investigators working frantically to solve a string of hideous murders. . . . Absorbing . . . suspenseful . . . gratifying.”—The Detroit News “A high-spirited, charged-up and unfailingly smart thriller.”—Los Angeles Times “You can smell the fear in the air.”—The New York Times “Keeps readers turning pages well past their bedtime.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Engrossing.”—Newsweek “A ripsnorter of a plot . . . a fine dark ride.”—The Arizona Daily Star “[A] delicious premise . . . Its settings and characterizations are much more sophisticated than the run-of-the-mill thrillers that line the shelves in bookstores.”—The Washington Post Book World “The method of the hunt and the disparate team of hunters lift the tale beyond the level of a good thriller—way beyond. . . . A remarkable combination of historical novel and psychological thriller.”—The Buffalo News “Mesmerizing.”—Detroit Free Press “Remarkable . . . The reader is taken on a whirlwind tour of the Gilded Age metropolis, climbing up tenement stairs, scrambling across rooftops, and witnessing midnight autopsies. . . . A breathtaking, finely crafted mystery.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch “Gripping, atmospheric . . . intelligent and entertaining.”—USA Today “Harrowing, fascinating . . . will please fans of Ragtime and The Silence of the Lambs.”—The Flint Journal From the Publisher “You can smell the fear in the air.” –The New York Times “Gripping, atmospheric, intelligent, and entertaining.” –USA Today –This text refers to the audio_download edition. From Booklist Transvestite boy prostitutes lie in the crosshairs of this mystery’s homicidal maniac, and bringing to brook the killer’s depredations is the job of Theodore Roosevelt, New York’s police chief in 1896. TR doesn’t trust his corrupt department with the case and so enlists an informal task force consisting of psychologist Kreizler (in the day’s jargon, the alienist of the title), crime beat reporter Moore (the tale’s narrator), and assorted gumshoes and gophers. Appearing at cameo intervals, TR once makes the profile-clinching suggestion that the sicko is acquainted with the Sioux style of mutilation. With that idea, Moore and Kreizler unlock the case, eventually cornering their prey atop a water reservoir. Despite its unwieldy elements, flat characters, and excess palaver among them, this story boasts a veracious historical feel and a tight plot that keeps open the murderer’s identity to the end. An original that fits no established mystery niche, Carr’s fictional debut could be the start of something big. Gilbert Taylor –This text refers to the audio_download edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I bought the ebook version to re-read before the release of the new TNT series – I had loved the book when I 1st read it in the 90s, and wanted a quick refresher course. That proved to be a great decision, the book is even better than I had remembered.What always impressed me wt this book was the seamless merging of historical fact with pure fiction. I, like the author Caleb Carr, have been a fan of Theodore Roosevelt’s and to find him walking throughout the pages of this book has been wonderful. I loved the of 1896 New York, almost a living, breathing character in its own right, especially wt so many references to known landmarks.The characters are well-drawn, the plot moves along well. The end surprised me… again, but for different reasons this time.I recommend this book to all who love a good crime story and appreciate history. I can only hope that the series will do it justice, although my reaction to Sara’s character…..hmmmmm.

⭐ The Alienist refers to Dr. Lazlo Kreisler. An alienist the nineteenth century referred to experts who studied varying mental pathologies. A killer is loose in the dark, fetid and dank streets of New York City. The year is 1896. Kreisler puts together a team to help track down a serial killer whose specialty the gruesome murder of young boys who spend their miserable lives as male prostitutes. The team includes Harvard educated New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore. Moore is joined with Sara Howard a weapon wielding feminist who aspires to be a female police officer in the male dominated corrupt police department of the city. Young Theodore Roosevelt is the crusading police commissioner who is out to stamp out crime and corruption in the big city. Carr is good at including historical details in this intricate work. We learn all about the Metropolitan Opera, Natural Museum of Natural History, the various bridges and boroughs of the teeming city of immigrants are drawn with pastel colors illuminating the gilded age of gas and gory murder. It was during this era that Jack the Ripper in London and other serial killers first became known to the public. The lengthy work is well written and suspenseful. Those looking for explicit sex scenes should look elsewhere; this is a sober work whose chief focus is on the solving of the horrendous crimes. There are many surprises and exciting moments on our ride to justice. The book has been turned into a new miniseries on TNT network which will draw new fans to the honey of this outstanding work. I first read the book in 1994 when it appeared to acclaim by critics and public alike. I enjoyed rereading the novel gaining new insights and appreciation of all the research Carr lent to this fine work. It is destined to become a classic in the historical crime genre. Recommended.

⭐ Good, but gruesome, read. Fairly fast, intricate plot, believable. NOTE; children put through gruesome situations. But the writer kept me wanting to return to resolve the questions posed. Will now watch the TV show of the same and see how closely it follows.

⭐ While this was required reading for composition at my college, it was a fun book to read. This is not a book for the faint of heart or those who do not tolerate violence against children or sexual deviance, even in the non-fiction realm. It has graphic aspects. Carr gives a wonderful account of late 19th century New York City and thrills with interesting commentary about the city at that time, and develops a solid story with a friendship woven into a tense investigation. I am looking forward to reading this book again!

⭐ I read the 1994 novel “The Alienist” by Caleb Carr when it was first published and enjoyed it quite a lot. Seeing a recent announcement that TNT is releasing a miniseries based on the book provided the stimulus for me to revisit Carr’s thriller. An ‘alienist’ is an antiquated term for a psychiatrist which at the turn of the last century was a profession not held in high esteem. The setting is New York City and a string of grisly murders of young male prostitutes has the cities new Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, desperate for a solution. An old Harvard chum, ‘alienist’ Dr. Laszlo Kreisler is enlisted in the hunt as a pioneering profiler. Kreisler is aided by another Harvard classmate, crime reporter John Schuyler More, police secretary Sara Howard, and a pair of sibling detectives the Isaacsons, street urchin Stevie Taggart and Cyrus who is Kreisler’s driver. Carr does a good job of painting a picture of old New York and captures the period nicely. He keeps the pages turning as our team begins to unravel the identity of the depraved serial killer. The suspense builds right to the end and an exciting confrontation between Kreisler and Moore with the killer. The plot develops methodically and for some readers perhaps too slowly. Development of secondary characters is a bit lacking. I felt we didn’t really get to know Sara, Stevie, and the brothers with as much depth as there could have been. All told “The Alienist” holds up well some 23 years later and I enjoyed reading it again, enough to order the sequel “Angel of Darkness” for my Kindle. What’s surprising is that Carr quit the series after two books, you get the feeling that these characters could have gone on with more stories to tell. Here’s hoping the miniseries is as good.

⭐ After watching the television series, I really wanted to read this book to see how the two may differ. I normally read the book first, but in this case, I’m glad I watched the show because I think it might’ve been a little difficult to follow the book completely without having seen it.The amount of research that went into this book is impressive. Carr is clearly a historian first, though his writing is also topnotch. There were times I felt as if I was reading a classic novel because of the language that was used, which I appreciate, but someone who reads action adventure or mystery written at a quicker pace might be put-off by some of the word choices.This is not a fast-pace thriller. It is a methodically unwinding mystery that does more to explore the why of the murders than the who, though both are dissected thoroughly. The characters are all well-developed, particularly the three main investigators and the antagonist.As a reader who is interested in New York history, I loved the aspect of this book that let us see what life was like in this particular time in one of the world’s most fascinating cities.I recommend this book to anyone who loves history, mystery, and New York City. If you can’t handle gruesome descriptions of violent acts against children, though, this is not the book for you.

⭐ If you’re entertained by the variations of Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hercules Poirot and tv shows like CSI and Criminal Minds then this is right up your alley. This book takes you back to the early days of the science of criminology and forensic science with original characters that are true to the historical setting. There is lots of historical background interwoven into the story that makes it more fascinating but also adds so much detail that it gets a little bogged down at times and slows the momentum of the story. Still there is enough suspense and mystery to keep you turning pages to the very end.

⭐ Mysteries, and its frequent brethren, thrillers, can be good stories; but they are rarely—less rare than those called “literary fiction”—to be considered classics, or at least a classic of a genre, or sub-genre. The Alienist I consider to be a mystery-thriller classic.The author, Caleb Carr, goes beyond the paint-by-the-numbers form of traditional mystery form. There is lots of science, a good deal of it newly hatched, therefore disbelieved, contentiousness, yet generating awe. Forensics, aberrant psychology, particularly the aberrant forms, methodical investigative policing, objectivity, rather than prejudice, superstition, and questionable conjecture, are all parts of this story that takes place in that, for most, dark, dank, and dirty world of 1896 New York City.Mr. Carr has done an incredible job of incorporating historical figures—Theodore Roosevelt, then the city’s police commissioner; J.P. Morgan, the most powerful financier in America; and others. They mesh seamlessly with the fictional investigative team investigating the gruesome adolescent murders gripping the city, and striving and struggling to find the murderer.And, how well the author created a three-dimensional evil, psychologically crippled and devilish protagonist. So much so that feeling sympathy for him despite his hideous work feels not strange or wrong.So full is the book with detail, nuance, exceptional characters, and a fiendishly grand story—a classic that’s a superlative example of how good mystery-thriller fiction can be—that I cannot avoid giving it 5 stars.

⭐ I bought the novel after already watching a few episodes of the Alienist TNT TV show. I rarely start a book after watching the TV show, but I’m kind of glad I did. I’m both glad I read the book and I’m glad I started the show first.I almost never say this, but I really think the show was better. I don’t think this is really a “fault” of the novel. The novel is written in first person with the viewpoint character being John Moore, a police reporter. The show opens up the limited viewpoint, and things that are only mentioned in the book are actually shown. With the exception of a few differences (usually involving an in depth look at one of the characters who feel more like “side” characters in the novel, and most notably, the end of the book), the show is overall pretty faithful to the original story.With that being said, I think the book would be pretty good on its own, but I also have to admit that I don’t know if I would have found myself picking up this book and continue to read it if it hadn’t been for the show. The language, mimicking late-nineteenth century style, is dense at times. I usually blow through a book I find interesting in a matter of days (or hours), but this book took nearly three weeks. I was only able to read a few chapters at a time before I got tired. I wanted to finish the book before I watched the finale of the show, and with the different ending, I’m glad I did. (Because, admittedly, the TV shows ending was better for me).Overall, it’s definitely worth the read, especially if interested in historical criminology and/or serial killers.

⭐ I first encountered this book in paperback around 1999 along with the second book TheAngel of Darkness (saw a display of the second book). Originally, I had a hard time gettinginto the book first time around and actually thought about stopping halfway through. Howeversomething drew me back to it. I found the characters quite an odd team, but once I finished it,I loved it. I could see a movie being made about it (at the time I heard that plans were being made).I kept the paperbacks and reread the Alienist two more times before giving it to my local libraryYears later, I read this book again in e-book format to compare it to the Television series. I still enjoyedit and actually remembered parts of it. In reading this, it was like revisiting old friends thatyou haven’t seen in awhile. The character I loved most when I was younger was Sara Howard and I wished I hadher attitude back then. Now, my favorites are everyone (except Morgan and Conner).I am excited to hear that a third book will be written on this series. (something I have been awaitingsince probably 2002). Must read for anyone who loves any of Mr. Carr’s works. (Also check out KillingTime, Surrender, New York, and The Italian Secretary).

Keywords

Free Download The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1) in Epub format
The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1) Epub Free Download
Download The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1) 2006 Epub Free
The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1) 2006 Epub Free Download
Download The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1) Epub
Free Download Ebook The Alienist: A Novel (Dr. Lazlo Kreizler Book 1)