Book Review: "The Angel of Darkness"

Caleb Carr's The Angel of Darkness is positioned as a sequel to his earlier psychological mystery The Alienist, and features many of the same characters (including a brief cameo by Theodore Roosevelt, the orthodox psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kriezler, whiny journalist John Schuyler Moore, and female detective Sara Howard). This volume is narrated by Stevie Taggart, who debuted in the earlier book but is brought to center stage in this one. It is a gruesome tale of murder and gang warfare in turn-of-the-century New York: sort of a "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" for the late 1890s. Like its predecessor, this is a riveting book, and held my interest well. Not quite as good as The Alienist, true, but fine in its own right.