Josh T. (psykotedy) reviewed on 1/24/2011 + 3 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Terrifying look at crime in turn of the 20th century New York City. The vividly painted seedy underbelly that existed in the City at that time (and probably remains, though with a different face) is a horrible place that nobody should have had to endure; the lack of drive to change things on the part of the NYPD of the day; the lack of acceptance of forensic methodology and evidence. All of these things add up to a grim world in which a person is able to brutally torture and kill children who have nowhere else to turn.

The lone light in this dark setting is a band of people from various backgrounds, led by an alienist (the term used to describe psychologists at the time) and backed by Theodore Roosevelt prior to his trek to Washington. The group fights resistance from the police department, the upper class (including the Catholic and Protestant churches), and the criminal element active in the city while racing against the unknown calendar by which a psychopath executes children.

The characters are well-fleshed out, and each unique. Roosevelt is exactly how one would expect him to be: just on the realistic side of larger than life. The city provides a character unto itself with the juxtaposition of the contrasting aristocratic class and third-world immigrant class is outstandingly portrayed, and the criminal world that straddles the fence between the two classes, providing depravity to the upper echelon by victimizing the poor while offering the possibility of escape from under the otherwise inescapable boot heel of the rich.

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