After nearly two years, TNT finally premiered the second season of The Alienist, which is based off of Caleb Carr’s second novel in the Dr. Kreizler series, The Angel of Darkness. Rather than wait to read this novel, I decided to get the jump on the series and read the book first! This was no small feat by the way. Clocking in at over 600 pages, and with a divine amount of detail, this book took me longer than the average to crank out, but I managed to do so just a day before the second season premiere! As expected, the novel was fantastic. Everything depicted with such vivid detail and a fine amount of humor laced within the serious context of the story.
This book is written in the perspective of the doctor’s groom and carriage driver, Stevie Taggert, unlike the first which was told by Mr. John Moore. Similar to how The Alienist was written, The Angel of Darkness is written as a memory, with Stevie later in his life and looking back on events that took place only a year after the events of the first novel. Since the conclusion of the John Beecham case, Theodore Roosevelt has moved to Washington, Kreizler has doubled down on his duties at the institute, the detective sergeants are back at work with the police department, and Sara Howard has taken over the rent of 808 Broadway to continue investigative work for women. Although she normally gets rich women who are trying to figure out if their husbands are cheating on them (they are), she does manage to attract the attention of a Spanish consulate, whose child has been taken.
Sara manages to gather everyone back together, which is a nice distraction for Dr. Kreizler, since his institute is being investigated for the apparent suicide of one of his young tenants. Their early efforts to try and detect the kidnapper seemingly introduces the world of 1897 to what are today known as police sketches. They are able to rather quickly identity who the woman is, but life just ins’t that easy. Kreizler is convinced that she does not suffer from any mental illnesses, but is rather just acting the way she knows how. It is determined that this woman, Libby Hatch, has killed many children throughout her life in a variety of way, and that she will not be easily taken down. In fact, it seems at several junctures, she is able to outsmart the group at almost every turn. In order to make an impact, they decide to go to the town where she last resided and lean on the help of one of Moore’s old friends, the lawyer Mr, Picton. He is quite the character, and a fun addition to the group.
There are strange turns at every corner of this novel, and not unlike the first go around, there is also bloodshed close to the core group. It’s also inconceivable the amount of evil that one woman can pose to the world! There are plenty of themes within this novel, written in the 90s, that still resonate today, such as that women are only caretakers of children. I found that theme very interestingly discussed throughout the book. Aside from all the historical intricacies throughout the book, it was also pretty neat getting a retelling of events from a different character. I will say, if you have seen the show, watch the second season of it before reading the book, though. Very, very good read!