DNF Audiobook Review – The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, Book 1) by Caleb Carr, Narrated by George Guidall (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 20 hours (608 pages)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: November 6, 2012
ASIN: B071NZCNNP
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dr. Laszlo Kreizler series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
“The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or “alienist.” On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan’s infamous brothels.
The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler’s intellect and Moore’s knowledge of New York’s vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology– amassing a psychological profile of the man they’re looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.”
This is the first book in the Dr. Laszlo Kreizler series. I listened to the first half (10hrs) of this audiobook on a long car trip. I thought it was fairly boring and kept finding my mind wandering while listening to this. I opted to stop listening to this and move onto something else because I didn’t want to fall asleep while driving.
The audiobook is well done. Guidall does an excellent job with narration, conveying emotion, and keeping character voices straight. This is impressive because there are a lot of characters in this book.
My main issues with this book was that there was just too much hashing and rehashing of psychological theories and lots of unnecessary historical information that doesn’t have an impact on the overall story. As our characters again rehashed psychological theories about why the killer would be abusing children, my mind would wander and I would wonder if the story was ever going to make any progress….this could have been a 10 hr audiobook easy but stretching it out was ridiculous.
The subject matter here isn’t pleasant; it involves a lot of gruesome child abuse/killings and a lot of sexual abuse/deviancy as well. Just a heads up for those who don’t like to read that kind of thing…this is definitely an adult book.
Overall I wasn’t a fan of this book, it just wasn’t for me. Despite the gruesome subject matter, the material was strangely boring and it took forever for the story to make any progress. If you enjoy mysteries that delve into a lot of irrelevant historical facts and are interested in killer psychology you might enjoy this. I just found it tedious.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
