need help identifying book

[flutterbug]

In 2002 I read a book of fiction based on Jack the Ripper. It was not my own and I have since lost touch with the person who lent it to me. It was a very detailed book, smiling, I want to say something like"The Inquisitioner" was the title but I know that was not it...I was hoping that maybe someone has read it or knows of it. I believe it was an older book, I have no idea who the author is or the real title. It was in the eyes of an officer during that time, it talked of the murders in detail and of the male prositutes most of them children. My memory is not as good as it use to be - I wish I could give more information.

Please help! I have tried to look for it - but with such little info it is hard to do.

thanks

[George Hutchinson]

I think Jana Oliver might be your woman to answer this. She's a writer of Ripper-related fiction and an authority on the subject. It doesn't ring any bells with me, I'm afraid.

Jana goes under the moniker TIME ROVER on this site, so search her out under the members list and PM her.

PHILIP

[The Grave Maurice]

Since Time Rover doesn't seem to be listed on this site, you might try the "moniker" of Jana Oliver. I'll bet she knows. The book doesn't sound at all familiar to me, either. Have you got any more details about it?

[BillyE]

That sounds to me like "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr. An Alienist is what they called psychiatrists before the turn of the century. Look that up and see if it's the one.

[flutterbug]

Smiling....thank you, I believe you might be right!

[BillyE]

Caleb Carr is one of my favorite authors writing today. There's a sequal to "The Alienist" called "Angel of Darkness" told from a different character's perspective. His latest book is a Doyle Estate endorsed Sherlock Holmes book called "The Italian Secretary", and is quite good. See if you can find a copy of these, and other Caleb Carr books, and tell us what you think.

[The Grave Maurice]

Oh nice catch, Billy. I'm a fan of Carr's too, but I didn't make the connection. As you probably know, Carr wrote one of the earliest, and most devastating, reviews of Patricia Cornwell's Portrait of a Killer for the New York Times. Anyone who hasn't read it can find it here.

[Jana Oliver]

Quite belatedly I read this thread (sigh). BillyE nailed it. The Alienist is a wonderful read and some of Carr's scenes still haunt me in a visceral way. He pulls no punches, both in his description of the crimes or 1896 NYC. I suspect that's why the book is still selling well on Amazon though it's been out for over two years.

Thanks for the "expert" comment, Mr. H., but I can't claim that title. I'm just fascinated with authors' versions of Old Jack. Now that my own work is put to bed, I'm hoping to get back to my research.

I promise to keep a sharper eye on the message boards. I'm Jana Oliver here and TimeRover at jtr.forums. Aliases are always a good thing.

Jana

[claire]

Aliases are always a good thing.

Until some bugger goes and...

[Jana Oliver]

No harm done. Most of the folks know me as Time Rover anyway. I don't keep a high profile, but I'm lurking on the boards whenever I'm not nose deep in a manuscript and on deadline.

Jana

[Celesta]

Flutterbug,

There's a sequel to The Alienist, which lives up to the promise of The Alienist. However The Italian Secretary, a Sherlock Holmes, while popular with some, didn't live up the The Alienist, in my humble opinion.

[Pippin Joan]

The Alienist is a masterpiece of historical crime fiction. Carr is brilliant at setting the plot in the complex historical reality of late 19th c. NYC. It's really not a book to read alone at night! Angel of Darkness was very good, but not up to the level of The Alienist. The plot was great, but I felt that he covered and recovered familiar ground with the characters. I already knew them well enough, but Carr continued to repeat things that had been said. Like Stevie's love of steak and potatoes...

Not to give out any spoilers, but Angel of Darkness deals with women murderers and the public attitude toward it. It was interesting to see Elizabeth Cady Stanton's flat denial that women were capable of such crimes. As a feminist, she was of the school that demanded equal rights under the law, but emphasized the specific differences between masculine and feminine natures.

[Bob Hinton]

Follow up book

I agree with Pippin Joan here. I thought the first book was excellent but the second a bit of a let down. That often happens with authors, it's almost as if they pour everything into the first book.

I remember picking up a book at about one in the morning and fell asleep at four still reading it, it was that good. It was 'Mills' by Manning O'Brine and absolutely brilliant. I couldn't wait for his next book, 'Crambo' and found it as bas as the other was good!

[Celesta]

It's true that many authors pour so much into the first book. They're desperate to get their story into the public eye and want it to be utterly captivating. When the second one comes out, it seems they've lost some steam. The same thing happened with Will Thomas' Cyrus Barker, from Some Danger Involved. He was one of those Sherlock Holmes larger-that-life type characters, but in the next book there seemed to be less emphasis on that. The books are still interesting but don't have the same wallop as the first one.

The follow-up to The Alienist was a respectable one though because the character remained interesting, even if it didn't quite have the same punch. The first one had the atmosphere of grimy, crime-ridden New York and those rooftop chases. The second didn't have that kind of atmosphere.

I believe that our familiarity with the characters in sequels tends to make them less captivating, if more comfortable.

At any rate, the person who originated the thread hasn't been back recently.