Portraying New York City circa 1897 as a time bomb of political corruption and violence, Caleb Carr returns to familiar territory in The Angel of Darkness, the sequel to his international bestseller, The Alienist. Also a stand-alone novel, The Angel of Darkness brings together the same cast of characters from The Alienist but the relating of their recent psychological investigation has shifted from John Moore to 13-year-old Stevie Taggert. Abandoned by his drug addict mother, raised on the streets and in love with a teenage prostitute, Stevie"s narration brings to the novel a tender combination of streetwise nonchalance and a tentative optimism that has been fostered by Dr Laszlo Kriezler"s care. But even Stevie isn"t prepared for the case of Libby Hatch--a dangerous caretaker who leaves in her wake a trail of dead children and who has kidnapped the child of a Spanish diplomat. Racing against the clock of Libby"s psychosis and a legal system that has blinkered itself to such atrocities, the group struggle to find the key that will reveal Libby"s murderous nature. A fascinating exploration of the very modern theme of motherhood and its role in society, The Angel of Darkness is a taut, page-turning thriller set against a gloomy Dickensian backdrop of crime and depravation. --Shannon Bingham