A fantastic book not for the faint of heart. "The Alienist" tells the story of an investigative team lead by a modern psychologist in the pursuit of a serial killer. The setting is Manhattan circa 1896 and it's as real as a book can ever make it. The narrative takes place in the complex landscape of a city which struggles with incipient overpopulation, corruption and crime. The author does an incredible job of painting this scenery which becomes easy to visualize with your mind's eye. The drawback to this quality is that, in a story as gruesome as this one, you may not welcome the level of realism.
The book should appeal to readers of good mysteries such Agatha Christie's or Conan Doyle's, but more specially to those who appreciate a thorough study of the criminal mind more than just the answer to "who did it?" Another interesting facet of this book, is its strong historical appeal: to someone as ignorant on American history as I am, you get the impression that you're learning at the same time you're being entertained. The line dividing reality and fiction becomes a little too tenuous to decypher, but a little research can confirm many of the facts fed you throughout the book. So, in the end, if you paid attention to what you read, you really did learn quite a bit.
When most of the setting for the story is derived from historical facts and the characters are so well fleshed out, the level of realism attained makes this a very scary book. There were passages where I was literally afraid to keep on reading so revolting were the scenes they depicted. I thoroughly enjoyed the profiling of the killer and the trip into this disturbed person's mind, but I can't recommend this book for people who wouldn't enjoy a ride such as "The Silence of The Lambs".
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