Lynne J. (Doughgirl) reviewed on 5/12/2008 + 138 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Simply put, The Alienist is a like a long episode of CSI set in late 19th New York City. Someone is killing young male prostitutes. A psychologist (known then as an alienist) convinces then NYC police chief Teddy Roosevelt to let him assemble a task force of detectives (including one female secretary cum detective) and a Times reporter - who is the narrator of the story. Using what was then cutting edge forensic techniques and technology - like finger printing, psychological profiling, handwriting analysis, etc, etc - they gradually figure out who is committing these dastardly crimes. But even then they have to find and catch him! Along the way they deal with some of the poorest and most criminal of NYC's citizens.

This is a long book, and bogged down a little for me in the middle, but picked up very well in the last few hundreds pages. And it was a fascinating story all along.

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