The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr

I have a funny story to start this one off with it. When I was about half way through The Alienist, I ordered The Angel of Darkness from Amazon. When it arrived, my Alexa let me know that I have a notification. It went a little something like this:

Me: Alexa, play notification.
Alexa: For Kelsey, The Angel of Darkness has arrived.

I then hear my boyfriend from the other room say, "Well that's a bit ominous." I definitely got a chuckle out of it. A few days later, Alexa scared the hell out of me when she started spelling "Donna" without being prompted and the room being completely quiet, and unfortunately, there is nothing to explain that one away.

But back to the book. I thoroughly enjoyed Angel of Darkness, especially now that I had knowledge of the characters and had gotten use to the time period and speech.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

It is now June of 1897, a year after the death of John Beecham and life has changed for our little group. The Isaacson brothers, who were promoted under Roosevelt's time as police commissioner, have been demoted now that he is gone; Moore's grandmother has passed away and he has fallen into more drinking, gambling, and promiscuity; Sara has retained the lease of 808 Broadway and opened an investigative service for women, but is really just investigating cheating husbands; and Dr. Kreizler has been temporary suspended from the Kreizler Institute while a child's suicide is being investigated. Everyone is just making it through when Sara gets a case that is much more serious: the daughter of a Spanish diplomat has been kidnapped, and tension between the United States and Spain is preventing a standard case from being opened. The team is determined to find the child, and end up discovering something much more twisted and tragic.

Trigger Warning: This book and post contain themes of violence, child abuse, and child abuse.

While The Alienist is told from John Schuyler Moore's point of view, this novel is told from the point of view of Stevie Taggert, who had been saved from a life of street crime by Dr. Kreizler. This is maybe my only point of contention with the entire book. I wish that the book had either continued with Moore's perspective, or had alternated perspectives in both books. While part of my feelings on this are the want for consistency between the books narration, a small part of me also does not like how Moore is portrayed through Stevie's eyes. While Stevie never thought that Moore was an asshole, Moore really comes off as a lazy, arrogant asshole through Stevie's description of events. While Moore has his moments of being a jerk in the first novel, it felt much more consistent this time. But mostly, I just don't like this kind of change, and I understand that this is just a personal preference and I am sure there are people out there who love this.

The crimes this time around are just as atrocious as Beecham's in The Alienist, but the case is more frustrating. Very early on, they discover the abductor is a woman named Elspeth Hunter, or as she is known on the streets, Libby Hatch. But knowing who they are after does not make the case any easier. Libby is a scene of contradictions as, during the day, she is a well respected nurse who has the support of many well known people; but by night, slums it with the leader of one of New Yorks infamous gangs. What this means for our team is that she is protected on all sides of the law. While high society could never believe she would be capable of such a crime, the gang members help hide the kidnapped child. And because of the budding war between the U.S.and Spain, the team cannot go to the police for help as the results of that could be catastrophic. Despite the brutality of the crimes in the previous novel, this one has much more violence for these reasons.

(Source: Giphy)

As the team tries to assemble what they know about Libby, they research her past and find out the quite a few children have died in Libby's care. While she was a nurse, she was released after the mysterious respiratory deaths of some infants. Another child that she looked in on before moving to New York also mysteriously died from respiratory issues. And then the kicker: Libby was previously married and had three children. Her husband and two of the children are dead, the third is so scarred from the event, she has not spoken since. If you can't see the pattern, there is a lot of death surrounding this woman, hence the title. Libby is a woman who is supposed to be a mother, protector, lover (angel) and yet does not possess the capacity to do these things and ends up taking the lives of the innocent (darkness). This is where more frustration comes in as they will have to try to prosecute Libby for the deaths of her children if they want any hope of saving the missing child, and she has the protection of high society to help her here.You spend the majority of the novel very frustrated at the situation, and anxious to see how the team is going to work around the issues. I think I almost preferred not knowing who the killer was.

There is a lot of heartbreak in this novel too, and I'm not talking about just the deaths committed by Libby. Again, Carr kills off characters that you come to love. One of the deaths is extremely hard on Stevie, and although I pegged this character for death early on, it was not easy to read. Honestly, it was like the deaths of Mufasa or Sirius, the scene is that heart wrenching. Again, I was forced to take a minute and collect myself. These are not feelings I am use to feeling in Crime novels, but Carr is truly a brilliant author who draws the reader in so thoroughly, that these characters become real, and therefore, the pain is real.

(Source: Giphy)

As in The Alienist, there are plenty of real life people in the book. Elizabeth Cady Stanton makes a few appearances, and I do not think I would have liked her if she is anything like she is portrayed in the book. Clarence Darrow, a defense attorney, is also prominent in the book. For those who are not familiar with the name, he was the defense attorney in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes Monkey trial. He really changed how defense attorneys act by going after the juries emotions and not breaking apart the prosecutions case, and was a big believer in defending the underdog. He was also a humanitarian and very much against the death penalty.

These books are beyond amazing books with brilliant plots and larger than life characters; however, they are not for the faint of heart. Both include traumatic cases involving children and can get a bit graphic. I would highly recommend them both to people with interests in historical fiction and crime novels. There are rumors of a third novel, The Alienist at Armageddon, but the release date is in September of 2022, which had been pushed back from September of 2019, so I don't know. Should it be released, I will definitely be all over it!

(Source: Giphy)

Rating: 9/10
Author: Caleb Carr
Series: Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Book 2 of 2)
Genres: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
Dates Read: January 5-9, 2020