The Alienist

This is a book by Caleb Carr.

It's nothing special. As far as thrillers go, it isn't thrilling. As far as mysteries go, it is not mysterious. And, as far as historical fictions go, it is not especially historical.

Let's first look at the thriller aspect. It's a crime novel. The characters are trying to catch the bad guy. Of course there is going to be a little bit of suspense, but Carr uses cliché lines like "The stakes, as they say, were rising" (pg 204) far too often for any serious reader to not laugh a little every time one appears. The suspense just isn't there.

Next, I would hesitate to call this book a true mystery story. To me, a mystery is a book where the reader has a chance to solve puzzles and figure out the truth in step with the characters. With The Alienist, such chances are never provided. Either the reader is ten steps behind because the clues are too obscure, for example requiring knowledge of New York's turn-of-the-century water system, or the reader is five steps ahead because the clues are so obvious that he/she is left waiting for the characters to catch up. So, no, this book is not a mystery.

Finally, I don't count this as historical fiction either. The Killer Angels is historical. Even Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff is historical. These are books that base their plot on specific historical events. The plot of The Alienist has practically nothing to do with the period it is set in other than that it happens to be the date on the newspaper. Maybe that is an exaggeration; the time period provides some limits to the techniques the characters use and the occasional paragraph-length aside, which give me reason to designate this book a "period piece," but definitely not a historical fiction.

So, all-in-all, The Alienist is a very unspectacular book. I'd recommend it only to the unfortunate soul who can't decide if he wants to read a thriller, mystery, or historical fiction.