Most Popular Books by Caleb Carr

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A TNT ORIGINAL SERIES • “A first-rate tale of crime and punishment that will keep readers guessing until the final pages.”—Entertainment Weekly “Caleb Carr’s rich period thriller takes us back to the moment in history when the modern idea of the serial killer became available to us.”—The Detroit News When The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere. The year is 1896. The city is New York. Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. From there the two embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again before their hunt is over. Fast-paced and riveting, infused with historical detail, The Alienist conjures up Gilded Age New York, with its tenements and mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. It is an age in which questioning society’s belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and fatal consequences. Praise for The Alienist “[A] delicious premise . . . Its settings and characterizations are much more sophisticated than the run-of-the-mill thrillers that line the shelves in bookstores.”—The Washington Post Book World “Mesmerizing.”—Detroit Free Press “The method of the hunt and the disparate team of hunters lift the tale beyond the level of a good thriller—way beyond. . . . A remarkable combination of historical novel and psychological thriller.”—The Buffalo News “Engrossing.”—Newsweek “Gripping, atmospheric . . . intelligent and entertaining.”—USA Today “A high-spirited, charged-up and unfailingly smart thriller.”—Los Angeles Times “Keeps readers turning pages well past their bedtime.”—San Francisco Chronicle

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The most brilliant feline portrait in literary history.” –People Magazine (Book of the Week) The #1 bestselling author of The Alienist tells the extraordinary story of Masha, a half-wild rescue cat who fought off a bear, tackled Caleb like a linebacker—and bonded with him as tightly as any cat and human possibly can. “Dares us to take a journey into love and pain . . . My Beloved Monster is a love story and a requiem.” –Wall Street Journal “Excellent…Worth the emotional investment, and the tissues you will need by the end, to spend time with a writer and cat duo as extraordinary as Masha and Carr.” —Washington Post Book World Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he enter into the most extraordinary of all of his cat pairings: Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten, and was languishing in a shelter when Caleb met her. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose Caleb as her savior. For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the extensive, dangerous surrounding fields and forests. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb’s life-long study of the literature of cat behavior, and his years of experience with previous cats, helped him decode much of Masha’s inner life. But their bond went far beyond academic studies and experience. The story of Caleb and Masha is an inspiring and life-affirming relationship for readers of all backgrounds and interests—a love story like no other.

Meet Dr. Gideon Wolfe, expert criminologist of the new millenium. A professor at New York''s John Jay University in the year 2023, he lives in an era that has seen plague, a global economic crash, and the 2018 assassination of President Emily Forrester. In this turbulent new world order, Wolfe''s life and everything he knows are turned upside down when the widow of a murdered special-effects wizard enters his office. The widow hands him a silver disc from her husband''s safety deposit box, hoping that Wolfe''s expertise in history and criminology will compel him to track down her husband''s killers. The disc contains footage of President Forrester''s assassination, the same video that has been broadcast countless times on TV and over the internet-with one crucial, shocking difference: This version shows that before the video was released, it was altered with sinister special effects. This explosive discovery will lead Gideon Wolfe on an electrifying journey from a criminal underworld of New York to the jungles of Africa and on a quest to find the truth in an age when all information can be manipulated. With this novel, Carr has boldly established a new genre-future history-combining the best elements of mystery and thrillers with unique historical insight. Breathtakingly suspenseful,Killing Time unfolds as the work of a master novelist.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Imaginative and fulfilling . . . an addictive contemporary crime procedural.”—Michael Connelly, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) Caleb Carr, the author of The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness, returns with a contemporary, edge-of-your-seat thriller featuring the brilliant but unconventional criminal psychologist Dr. Trajan Jones. In the small town of Surrender in upstate New York, Dr. Jones, a psychological profiler, and Dr. Michael Li, a trace evidence expert, teach online courses in profiling and forensic science from Jones’s family farm. Once famed advisors to the New York City Police Department, Trajan and Li now work in exile, having made enemies of those in power. Protected only by farmhands and Jones’s unusual “pet,” the outcast pair is unexpectedly called in to consult on a disturbing case. In rural Burgoyne County, a pattern of strange deaths has emerged: adolescent boys and girls are found murdered in gruesome fashion. Senior law enforcement officials are quick to blame a serial killer, yet their efforts to apprehend this criminal are peculiarly ineffective. Jones and Li soon discover that the victims are all “throwaway children,” a new state classification of young people who are neither orphans, runaways, nor homeless, but who are abandoned by their families and left to fend for themselves. Two of these throwaways, Lucas Kurtz and his older sister, Ambyr, cross paths with Jones and Li, offering information that could blow the case wide open. As the stakes grow higher, Jones and Li must not only unravel the mystery of how the throwaways died but also defend themselves and the Kurtz siblings against shadowy agents who don’t want the truth to get out. Jones believes the real story leads back to the city where both he and Dr. Kreizler did their greatest work. But will Jones and Li be able to trace the case to New York before they fall victim to the murderous forces that stalk them? Tautly paced and richly researched, Surrender, New York brings to life the grim underbelly of a prosperous nation—and those most vulnerable to its failings. This brilliant novel marks another milestone in Caleb Carr’s triumphant literary suspense career. Praise for Surrender, New York “[A] page-turning thriller . . . For maximum enjoyment: surrender, reader.”—The Wall Street Journal “Every word of fiction Carr has produced seems to have been written in either direct or indirect conversation with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. . . . [Surrender, New York] allows Carr to deploy his indisputable gift for the gothic and the macabre, and the pursuit is suspenseful and believable.”—USA Today “[A] long-awaited return.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “[A] superb mystery . . . [that moves] at a swift and often terrifying pace. As in The Alienist, Carr triumphs at every twist and turn.”—Providence Journal “Edgar Allan Poe would have understood this book and hailed it a masterpiece. . . . A terrific story with a great setting and a very modern social message.”—The Globe and Mail “[An] engrossing mystery.”—Library Journal “A compulsive read . . . Carr once again delivers a high-stakes thriller featuring a new band of clever, determined outcasts.”—Booklist (starred review) “Carr’s many fans will find this well worth the wait.”—Kirkus Reviews

In one of the most critically acclaimed novels of the year, Caleb Carr-- bestselling author of The Alienist--pits Dr. Laszlo Kreizler and his colleagues against a murderer as evil as the darkest night. . . .

“A sprawling fantasy saga . . . Caleb Carr boldly goes where he’s never gone before.”—USA Today Legend meets history in this mesmerizing novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Caleb Carr. Demonstrating the rich storytelling, skillful plotting, and depth of research he showcased in The Alienist, Carr has written a wildly imaginative, genre-bending saga that redefines the boundaries of literature. Some years ago, a remarkable manuscript long rumored to exist was discovered: The Legend of Broken. It tells of a prosperous fortress city where order reigns at the point of a sword—even as scheming factions secretly vie for control of the surrounding kingdom. Meanwhile, outside the city’s granite walls, an industrious tribe of exiles known as the Bane forages for sustenance in the wilds of Davon Wood. At every turn, the lives of Broken’s defenders and its would-be destroyers intertwine: Sixt Arnem, the widely respected and honorable head of the kingdom’s powerful army, grapples with his conscience and newfound responsibilities amid rumors of impending war. Lord Baster-kin, master of the Merchants’ Council, struggles to maintain the magnificence of his kingdom even as he pursues vainglorious dreams of power. And Keera, a gifted female tracker of the Bane tribe, embarks on a perilous journey to save her people, enlisting the aid of the notorious and brilliant philosopher Caliphestros. Together, they hope to exact a ruinous revenge on Broken, ushering in a day of reckoning when the mighty walls will be breached forever in a triumph of science over superstition. Breathtakingly profound and compulsively readable, Caleb Carr’s long-awaited new book is an action-packed, multicharacter epic of a medieval clash of cultures—in which new gods collide with old, science defies all expectation, and virtue comes in many guises. Brimming with adventure and narrative invention, The Legend of Broken is an exhilarating and enthralling masterwork. Praise for The Legend of Broken “An excellent and old-fashioned entertainment . . . The Legend of Broken seamlessly blends epic adventure with serious research and asks questions that men and women grappled with in the Dark Ages and still do today.”—The Washington Post “[A] colossal effort . . . a fantasy epic . . . meant as an allegory, a cautionary tale for our precarious times. To make his points, Carr has summoned a dream team of soldiers, wizards, and tiny forest folk.”—The New York Times Book Review “Carr keeps the action hurtling along with a steady diet of gruesome murders and political betrayals. And he clearly wants modern readers to see something of their own world in the political corruption and greed that ultimately doom Broken.”—The Boston Globe

“So marvelously improbable, so rich in exotic detail, that if often reads more like a historical thriller than the serious work of history that it is.”—Los Angeles Times With the same flair for history and narrative that distinguished his bestseller, The Alienist, Caleb Carr tells the incredible story of Frederick Townsend Ward, the American mercenary who fought for the emperor of China in the Taiping rebellion, history''s bloodiest civil war. The Devil Soldier is a thrilling, masterfully researched biography of the kind of adventurer the world no longer sees. Praise for The Devil Soldier “If ever a book of history were made for the movies, Caleb Carr''s The Devil Soldier is it.”—Chicago Tribune “Good, thorough, scholarly but absorbing.”—Edward Rice, author of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton

"Historians and philosophers alike have pondered the crucial turning points of history--the events that forever altered the course of civilization and set the stage for the world in which we live today. In these essays, some of the most respected minds of our time as the question "What if...": Pontius Pilate hadn''t ordered Jesus Christ''s crucifixion? Abraham Lincoln hadn''t abolished slavery? A Confederate aide hadn''t accidentally lost General Robert E. Lee''s plans for invading the North? The Allied invasion of D Day had failed? Pope Pius XII had spoken out against the Holocaust? The Mongols had succeeded in conquering Europe?"--Back cover.

Legendary detective Sherlock Holmes finds himself on the trail of a murderer whose connections may run all the way up the social ladder to the royal family.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • THE BOOK BEHIND SEASON TWO OF TNT’S THE ALIENIST • Dr. Laszlo Kreizler returns in a “whopping thriller” (The Washington Post) that showcases Caleb Carr “at his strongest” (USA Today). June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends—high-living crime reporter John Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime—have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case. But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara’s aid, the team reunites to help find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. Their investigation leads the team to a shocking suspect: a woman who appears to the world to be a heroic nurse and a loving mother, but who may in reality be a ruthless murderer of children. Once again, Caleb Carr proves his brilliant ability to re-create the past, both high life and low. Fast-paced and chilling, The Angel of Darkness is a tour de force, a novel of modern evil in old New York. Praise for The Angel of Darkness “A ripping yarn told with verve, intensity, and a feel for historical detail . . . Once again we are careening around the gaslighted New York that Carr knows, and depicts, so well.”—The New York Times Book Review “Gripping . . . Carr is at his strongest, exploring the dark underside of the human psyche and ferreting out the terrors and tragedies that drive men—and women—to kill. . . . In Libby Hatch, Carr has created a villain whose cunning is nearly equal to his detectives’ crime-solving prowess. . . . The mystery is plotted with military precision.”—USA Today “[A] whopping thriller . . . Carr keeps us racing along with him to the very end.”—The Washington Post Book World “Fascinating . . . In a brilliant bit of historical casting, Clarence Darrow, a rising courtroom wizard from Chicago, turns up to defend the villain at a tense upstate New York murder trial.”—Time

Military historian Caleb Carr’s groundbreaking work anticipated America’s current debates on preemptive military action against terrorist sponsor states, reorganization of the American intelligence system, and the treatment of terrorists as soldiers in supranational armies rather than as criminals. Carr’s authoritative exploration demonstrates that the practice of terrorism, employed by national armies as well as extremists since the days of ancient Rome, is ultimately self-defeating. Far from prompting submission, it stiffens enemy resolve and never leads to long-lasting success. Controversial on its initial publication in 2002, The Lessons of Terror has been repeatedly validated by subsequent events. Carr’s analysis of individual terrorist acts, and particularly of the history of the Middle East conflict, is fundamental to a deep understanding of the roots of terrorism as well as the steps and reforms that must be taken if the continuing threat of terrorist behavior is to be met effectively today and, finally, eradicated tomorrow.

One tends to think of ``national security'''' as a modern concern but, as Chace and Carr point out in this major study, American presidents have pursued it obsessively since the early days of the Republic. The authors demonstrate that this quest has brought with it a strong disposition to respond militarily to threats that more often are perceived than actual. This has led U.S. forces to increasingly remote regions until, at last, our two-century search for perfect safety intrudes on outer space itself. In their lucid concluding chapter on the origin, development and probable difficulties and dangers of SDI, the authors warn that perfect security in an imperfect world is a deceitful dream, that meaningful progress toward world peace is unlikely as long as that dream is held up to the American public as an attainable goal. Chace was formerly managing editor of Foreign Affairs, and Carr was formerly on the staff of the Council of Foreign Relations.

BASED ON THE FILM FROM THE ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR OF AUTO FOCUS AND AFFLICTION, AND FROM THE WRITER OF THE ALIENIST In the aftermath of World War II, Lankester Merrin finds himself in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. Haunted by memories of the war, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood and journeyed far from his native Holland. He has come to lead the archaeological excavation of a mysterious, Byzantine church, buried in pristine condition as if on the day it was completed. Directly underneath the church, Merrin discovers a much more ancient crypt -- and finds himself face-to-face with unspeakable Evil. Madness descends on the local villagers and the contingent of British soldiers sent to guard the excavation. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village -- atrocities he''d hoped to never see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun....

Even fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, it is still hard to grasp that we no longer live under its immense specter. For nearly half a century, from the end of World War II to the early 1990s, all world events hung in the balance of a simmering dispute between two of the greatest military powers in history. Hundreds of millions of people held their collective breath as the United States and the Soviet Union, two national ideological entities, waged proxy wars to determine spheres of influence–and millions of others perished in places like Korea, Vietnam, and Angola, where this cold war flared hot. Such a consideration of the Cold War–as a military event with sociopolitical and economic overtones–is the crux of this stellar collection of twenty-six essays compiled and edited by Robert Cowley, the longtime editor of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Befitting such a complex and far-ranging period, the volume’s contributing writers cover myriad angles. John Prados, in “The War Scare of 1983,” shows just how close we were to escalating a war of words into a nuclear holocaust. Victor Davis Hanson offers “The Right Man,” his pungent reassessment of the bellicose air-power zealot Curtis LeMay as a man whose words were judged more critically than his actions. The secret war also gets its due in George Feiffer’s “The Berlin Tunnel,” which details the charismatic C.I.A. operative “Big Bill” Harvey’s effort to tunnel under East Berlin and tap Soviet phone lines–and the Soviets’ equally audacious reaction to the plan; while “The Truth About Overflights,” by R. Cargill Hall, sheds light on some of the Cold War’s best-kept secrets. The often overlooked human cost of fighting the Cold War finds a clear voice in “MIA” by Marilyn Elkins, the widow of a Navy airman, who details the struggle to learn the truth about her husband, Lt. Frank C. Elkins, whose A-4 Skyhawk disappeared over Vietnam in 1966. In addition there are profiles of the war’s “front lines”–Dien Bien Phu, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs–as well as of prominent military and civil leaders from both sides, including Harry S. Truman, Nikita Khrushchev, Dean Acheson, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Richard M. Nixon, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, and others. Encompassing so many perspectives and events, The Cold War succeeds at an impossible task: illuminating and explaining the history of an undeclared shadow war that threatened the very existence of humankind.

When a madman begins stalking victims on the streets of 1896 New York, a team of investigators is forced to apply radical and untested techniques that include fingerprinting and the controversial science of psychology.

Das Psychogramm eines Mörders New York 1896: Unter Polizeichef Theodore Roosevelt kommt es zu einem grauenvollen Mord, der sich als Teil einer ganzen Mordserie erweist. Mit den Ermittlungen wird Dr. Kreisler beauftragt, ein Vorläufer Sigmund Freuds. Gegen erbitterte Widerstände gelingt es ihm, mittels eines detaillierten Psychogramms den Mörder einzukreisen.

Caleb Carr ist zurück, mit einem viktorianischen Thriller, der das Fürchten lehrt Eine mysteriöse Nachricht führt Sherlock Holmes und Dr. Watson in ein düsteres Schloss nach Schottland, Ort eines grausamen Doppelmords, der das Land erschüttert. Galt das Verbrechen der Königin? Holmes und Watson ermitteln und sind bald einer unheimlichen Verschwörung auf der Spur. Autorisiert vom Estate von Arthur Conan Doyle, lässt Caleb Carr den berühmtesten Detektiv der Weltliteratur wiederaufleben: Sherlock Holmes. Ein kryptisches Telegramm führt Holmes und Watson in der Baker Street zusammen. Bald ist es entschlüsselt, die Reise geht nach Holyroodhouse, dem schottischen Sitz der Königin. In einem verwaisten Flügel des Schlosses fielen zwei Angestellte einem bestialischen Mord zum Opfer. Die königlichen Berater sind in heller Aufregung, bereits mehrere Anschläge auf die Königin konnten in letzter Minute vereitelt werden. Besteht ein Zusammenhang? Holmes’ und Watsons Ermittlungen führen in alle Richtungen, bis sich eine Verbindung mehr und mehr herauskristallisiert: ein weiterer Mord, der in Holyroodhouse in ebendiesem Flügel verübt wurde, allerdings mehr als dreihundert Jahre zuvor. Holmes, der nicht an Übersinnliches glaubt, fühlt sich auf eine harte Probe gestellt.

Jack l''Éventreur fait piètre figure à côté du meurtrier de ce roman, dans lequel le lecteur découvre avec effroi les bas-fonds new-yorkais de la fin du XIX e siècle. " Si notre tueur respectait son calendrier, quel qu''il fût, il frapperait bientôt une nouvelle fois. " Mars 1896. Un meurtrier sème des cadavres d''adolescents atrocement mutilés dans les rues de New York sans provoquer la moindre réaction. Révolté par cette indifférence, Theodore Roosevelt, alors préfet de police, fait appel à Laszlo Kreizler, spécialiste des maladies mentales, et John Moore, chroniqueur criminel. Leur méthode est atypique : en étudiant les meurtres, ils tentent de brosser le portrait psychologique du tueur afin de le devancer dans ses funèbres desseins. Mais la découverte d''une nouvelle victime les entraîne bientôt dans une course contre la montre dans laquelle se confondent chasseur et proie. " Un monde digne d''Eugène Sue. Avec l''ombre de Sherlock Holmes qui plane, non loin de celle de Jack l''Éventreur. " – Télérama Né à Manhattan, Caleb Carr est diplômé d''histoire. Il a passé son enfance dans le Lower East Side, quartier populaire de New York où il réside toujours. Avec L''Aliéniste, son premier roman (Grand Prix de la littérature policière en 1996) et L''Ange des ténèbres, publiés aux Presses de la Cité, il est devenu un maître du thriller historique, mondialement reconnu.

When The Alienist was first published in 1994, it became a literary phenomenon, sold millions of copies and was a worldwide sensation. It became a modern classic, and a cornerstone of the historical suspense genre. After more than twenty years, the Alienist is back! The Alienist at Armageddon begins in the winter of 1915, soon after the start of the First World War. Reuniting the original''s beloved characters, the story is told from the perspective of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler--the famous psychologist, or "alienist," and his friend and comrade, John Moore, crime reporter for the New York Times. A massive explosive detonates mere feet from Kreizler''s home, marking the fourth in New York City in as many months. With his friends at his heels, Kreizler takes up his own case, and the cases of the other explosions. Amid the turmoil in New York City, they receive a news report: the RMS Luisitania, a British passenger ship bound for Liverpool from New York with Americans on board, has sunk mysteriously just eleven miles off the Irish coast. With international tensions high at the onset of the Great War, and many in Europe clamoring for American intervention, Kreizler''s case threatens to embroil not only his own life, but the lives of his countrymen, in the greatest and most deadly conflict modern civilization had ever seen.

En 1897 Nueva York era una ciudad caotica y en crecimiento. Las bandas actuaban con impunidad y dominaban barrios en los que la prostitucion, las drogas y los rateros eran males menores. Los metodos de investigacion policial todavia estaban en panales y la estrechez de miras era condicion comun en todas las capas sociales. Lazslo Kreizler, el alienista que revoluciona a la policia de Nueva York con sus metodos poco ortodoxos, asume extraoficialmente la investigacion del rapto de una nina, la hija del secretario del consul espanol. Pero este caso presenta dos dificultades anadidas. En primer lugarm el conflicto politico-economico en Espana esta al rojo vivo. En segundo lugar, todo indica que el rapto ha sido cometido por una mujer, una mujer que parece ser una sofisticada asesina de ninos.

Nueva obra del autor de El alienista Caleb Carr ilustra en esta novela la vida de Frederick Townsend Ward, de quien un articulista del Los Angeles Times escribio: "Para hacerse una idea de quien fue Frederick Townsend Ward, hay que imaginar una empresa como la de Lawrence de Arabia en version norteamericana, la capacidad de riesgo de Indiana Jones y el sentido etico de Robin Hood."Cuando Townsend Ward llego a Sanghai en 1859, tenia veintiocho anos y los bolsillos vacios; cuando murio en el campo de batalla tres anos mas tarde, era el americano que mas honores habia recibido en la historia de China, un americano que habia sido adoptado por un imperio que le habia honrado con el titulo de mandarin. El compromiso que contrajo con el pueblo chino le llevo a defender las causas mas ventajosas para el pais en esos momentos de cambio. Entre la China medieval de la dinastia Manchu y la revolucion republicana que mas adelante invadiria el pais, hubo un periodo sangriento de colision de fuerzas que querian decidir el futuro del imperio. El pais se encontraba dividido entre las actitudes arcaizantes de los partidarios de preservar el imperio chino manteniendolo en un estado reminiscente de la epoca medieval y la codicia comercial de los occidentales, quienes abrieron vias nuevas de pensamiento social, politico y religioso. Ante esta situacion convulsa, Townsend Ward invirtio todo su pragmatismo en encontrar una via intermedia que resguardara los valores fundamentales del imperio al tiempo que lo desfosilizaba de antiguos anclajes.Caleb Carr aborda un trabajo de historiador para ofrecernos la biografia del aventurero norteamericano mas extraordinario del siglo XIX.

En 1860, la longue agonie de la dynastie mandchoue, qui règne sur la Chine depuis des siècles, semble s''accélérer quand les troupes rebelles des Taiping marchent sur Shanghai. Dirigées par des officiers incapables et corrompus, les armées impériales ne peuvent faire face à la menace. Les hommes politiques chinois prennent conscience qu''il leur faut trouver de l''aide ailleurs. Or un étranger vient lui-même la leur proposer. Frederick Townsend Ward, jeune aventurier américain, débarque en Chine en 1859. Il a vingt-huit ans, pas un sou en poche. Lorsqu''il meurt au combat, trois ans plus tard, il est devenu sujet chinois et général de l''Armée-Toujours-Victorieuse. Comment expliquer ce destin fabuleux ? Ward a réussi à forger ce que ni la Chine ni le monde n''avaient encore vu : une armée hautement disciplinée, commandée par des officiers occidentaux, formée aux tactiques et aux armements modernes. Surnommés les " soldats du diable ", les hommes de Ward ont joué un rôle décisif dans l''issue de la guerre civile chinoise. Les très nombreux documents utilisés par Caleb Carr pour dresser le portrait du Diable blanc éclairent cette silhouette méconnue. Afin de cerner ce personnage hors du commun, l''auteur allie à son talent de romancier une érudition impressionnante.

Analyse : Roman de science-fiction (anticipation).

New York, juin 1897. Une année s''est écoulée depuis que le brillant psychiatre Laszlo Kreisler - un aliéniste selon le vocabulaire de l''époque - a réussi avec l''aide de ses fidèles compagnons à mettre un terme aux exactions du tueur en série John Beecham. Aujourd''hui Kreizler et ses amis ont repris leurs activités en s''efforçant d''oublier l''horreur de l''affaire Beecham. John Schuyler Moore est toujours chroniqueur criminel au New York Times ; l''indomptable Sara Howard a créé une agence de " services pour femmes " dont elle est l''unique détective ; les frères Issacson continuent de se chamailler dans l''exercice de leurs fonctions d''inspecteurs de police, tout en ayant recours à des méthodes scientifiques d''avant-garde ; Cyrus Montrose et Stevie Taggert, le grand Noir mélomane et l''impétueux gosse de la rue, sont resté au service de l''aliéniste. Mais, un jour, l''épouse éplorée d''un diplomate espagnol engage Sara pour lui venir en aide : sa petite fille a été enlevée. L''affaire est délicate et la piste politique paraît la plus vraisemblable. L''Espagne et les Etats-Unis étant sur le point d''entrer en guerre pour la possession de Cuba, ce rapt pourrait avoir de graves conséquences. Immédiatement l''équipe de l''aliéniste se reconstitue pour soutenir la détective dans son enquête. Des bas-fonds du Lower East Side aux décors feutrés du restaurant Delmonico, les fins limiers vont bientôt recueillir de précieux indices. De déductions en analyses, le profil psychologique du kidnappeur apparaît peu à peu sur le grand tableau noir de Laszlo Kreizler. Un être dont les mobiles ne sont pas politiques, une personnalité en proie à une étrange perversion, un tueur d''enfants ayant toutes les apparences de la normalité. Il faudra le courage de Stevie, la force de Cyrus, le savoir-faire des frères Isaacson, l''intuition de Sara, l''obstination de Moore et le génie de Kreizler pour réunir les preuves indubitables qui feront du suspect un coupable. Avant qu''il ne soit trop tard. Peinture fascinante de la grande cité américaine au seuil de l''époque moderne, thriller psychologique raffiné, l''Ange des ténèbres confirme l''immense talent de Caleb Carr.

The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times crime 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.