Editing Would Have Helped ‘Angel’
“The Angel of Darkness” Caleb Carr (Random House, $25.95)
The sequel to the enormously popular “The Alienist” recently arrived and with it comes a question: Is too much of a good thing too much?
Caleb Carr was an unknown historian before “The Alienist” caught America’s fancy in 1994. Set in New York City of the late 1800s, the historical mystery combined real people (Teddy Roosevelt when he was chief of police) and rich period detail (many lengthy dinners at Delmonico’s) with fictional characters who were pioneering forensic science and psychiatry, in particular Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the alienist - i.e., psychiatrist - of the title.
“The Alienist” was not just another serial killer story; it was a serial killer story with horse-drawn carriages, tenements teeming with impoverished immigrants and profiling before there was Quantico. No wonder it’s “soon to be a major motion picture.”
“The Angel of Darkness” is more of the same - lots more. Which is fine up to a point. I like to read about those late night multi-course meals as much as the next home cook. But it is impossible to read the more than 550 pages here without wondering: whatever happened to editing? Editing - you know, taking out what’s already been written?
Yes, of course, historical fiction depends in large part on the details and the description; that’s what makes you feel as though you stepped back in time. But an author still has to advance a story and when you read the same details over and over again, it’s hard to feel as though you’re making much headway.
“The Angel of Darkness” is told in discursive fashion by Stevie Taggert, who was Kreizler’s 13-year-old ward at the time child killer Libby Hatch was on the loose. Drawing together the same cast of fictional characters - Kreizler, Cyrus Montrose, his driver, Sara Howard, female detective, reporter John Schuyler Moore, and Lucius and Marcus Isaacson, twin detective sergeants with the New York City Police, where their forensic skills are highly undervalued - it also features cameos by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clarence Darrow and, again, Teddy Roosevelt (now Under Secretary of the Navy).
Detective work takes the group through some of New York City’s seamier neighborhoods, of course, but also outstate to Saratoga and its environs. The parallels between today and a hundred years ago - drugs, child abuse and star-studded courtrooms - are obvious.
What’s also obvious is that “Angel” is appealing for the same reasons “Alienist” was - good research and an involving yarn. But it would have been even better with some judicious editing. By the time Sara Howard brings out her Derringer and we’re told for about the fifth time how adeptly she keeps it hidden in her skirts, it occurred to me that people get killed for lesser offenses than redundancy. Editors, beware!