Play Book Tag discussion

the book was recommended to me when I asked for help here with a Play Harder prompt.

New York City in 1896 – the place to be for business, entertainment and cultural sophistication. A celebration of the enterprising American spirit, of the march of progress and of the power of money.
The horribly mutilated body of a young boy is discovered at the foot of one of the majestic new bridges being built over the Hudson River. He is one of the nameless multitudes who arrived from the Old World dreaming of a new chance at life, only to land in one of the hellish tenements that form the other side of the glittering coin that is New York. The police are ready to dismiss the case on sight as just another example of immigrant vice and criminality.
One man begs to differ. His name is Theodore Roosevelt, the recently appointed commissioner of police.
Roosevelt is fighting the big bosses in the political parties and the old guard in the precincts in an effort to reform the Force and to stamp out rampant corruption. He is too busy to investigate the boy’s murder, but canny enough to set up a secret task force that includes two of his former school friends on the trail of what every clue suggests is a serial killer preying on vulnerable children of the street.

The team is led by Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a specialist in so-called mental illnesses that is often called by police to give evidence in murder cases. Kreizler is known as an alienist, the one who decides if a person is crazy or not in the eyes of the law, and is in general shunned by his colleagues in academic circles for his revolutionary theories and for his dedicated social work. He is joined by Mr. John Schuyler Moore, a reporter with good family connections among the old families of New York and an old friend of Roosevelt.
The third member of the team is my favorite: Sara Howard, a young lady of good family, determined to become the first woman to join the police force even if she has to accept a secretarial post first and endure major resentment and abuse from the boys in blue. Roosevelt also detaches two rookies of Jewish ancestry who are also bullied by the mostly Irish gangs in the force. Marcus and Lucius are fascinated by the technical aspects of an investigation and want to implement new methods like dactyloscopy, photography, advanced pathology and other tools still in their experimental phase.

In the meantime, the killer is also busy, adding an element of terrible pressure on the task force to identify him before he strikes again.

I found the novel gripping and a page turner but, in a rather surprising fashion, its main appeal for me was the historical recreation of an era and less the police procedural aspects of the investigation or the rush of adrenaline as the race against time heats up in later chapters.

I read The Alienist decades ago and your review reminded me of why I liked it so much. He has a follow-up to go with it, The Angel of Darkness.

Caleb Carr was an interesting man and he wrote a personal memoir/cat memoir, My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me. I really enjoyed it when I read it, but of course, I am a cat person.

Booknblues wrote: "I read The Alienist decades ago and your review reminded me of why I liked it so much. He has a follow-up to go with it, The Angel of Darkness.

Caleb Carr was an interesting man and..."

For a writer with little previous experience in fiction, Carr created some memorable characters in this novel.