Books like The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Set in March 1896 New York City, the novel follows journalist John Schuyler Moore, summoned by former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—an emerging psychologist known as an alienist—to investigate a gruesomely mutilated adolescent on the Williamsburg Bridge. Newly appointed Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt enlists the duo, valuing Kreizler’s intellect and Moore’s knowledge of the city’s criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a dedicated police department secretary. Working clandestinely in a society skeptical of both alienists and psychology, the trio embarks on a revolutionary criminology effort: creating a psychological profile of a serial killer whose previous murders hint that he will kill again. Their investigation reveals the stark contrasts of the Gilded Age—tenements and mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, opera houses and gin mills—while challenging contemporary beliefs about the nature of criminality.

First publish date: 1994