Here, in addition to fingerprinting and police sketches, ballistics proves important as the Isaacson brothers link the bullet that killed the Hatch sons with a gun the woman instructed a servant to throw down a well. Although Angel doesn't have the taut suspense of the first book, in which mutilated bodies kept popping up on a regular schedule, it picks up steam in its last third. Carr handles the courtroom scenes effectively and saves a narrative twist or two for the end. But both books are overlong and slackly constructed, especially The Angel of Darkness . At 560 pages, it could have been cut by a third.
Scenes go on too long.
The sleuths come together to share their day's discoveries in static, talky set pieces. Somebody should have taken a red pencil to the manuscript. A large part of The Alienist 's charm comes from cameo appearances by historical figures such as Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan and from Carr's evocation of a noirish world of perverts, crooked cops, society swells and impoverished immigrants. You can see the fog, hear the echo of horses' feet, smell the stale beer and cheap perfume. Carr again salts the text with cameos.