The Alienist

How it reads

The Alienist is historical fiction (historical psychological mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the historical past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are justice, secrets and power and politics. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. At 498 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.