Caleb Carr Books In Order

Publication Order of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Caleb Carr is an American author that writes fiction and nonfiction works in a variety of genres ranging from diplomatic and military history, historical thrillers, and terrorism. He was born on August 2 1955 in Manhattan, New York in the Lower East side. He always had an interest in military history right from the time he attended St Luke’s School and Friends Seminary for his primary and secondary education respectively. He would later attend Kenyon College in Ohio from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Military and Diplomatic History. Much of his fiction is on the theme of violence by persons that were once victims of child abuse. Carr is best placed to write on the subject, having had an abusive father that inflicted emotional and physical abuse on his entire family. Despite the violence in his home, Caleb Carr asserts that he formed a very strong bond with his siblings that included his three brothers and the three daughters of his stepfather. During his younger years, Carr spent most of his time in New York movie theaters watching classic, war, and military history movies, as he had a desire to find violence meted out within an ethical code, and that had a purpose.

Even as his early years were full of abuse and chaos, Carr asserted that the house was full of learning for a child interested in learning. All of his siblings have a very remarkable knowledge and appreciation of literature, history, and music. The 80s saw Carr work as a journalist and scholar in the day and direct the productions of his own plays at the theater at night. During his leisure time he would get together with friends and play some music in a band they called Hell and High Water. During the 90s, he would expand his repertoire when he worked with Ezequiel Viano to adopt the Arthurian legends for the opera Merlin. While the work remained unfinished, the first scene was staged at the Paris Opera House in 1999, and boasted a full orchestra house. Most of Caleb Carr’s life has been spent in Manhattan’s East Side, particularly his summers and weekends most of which would find him at Cherry Plain New York, where his family had a home. In 2000, he bought a house in Cherry Plain that he named Misery Mountain. He moved into the house in 2006, where he currently lives with Masha, his Siberian cat.

While he has made a name for himself as an authority on military history and related aspects such as international terrorism, he is best known for his fiction works and novels. Unlike many novelists who credit a few authors in a narrow field for influencing their work, Carr is very different. For his fiction works Michael Crichton, William Gibson, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Willkie Collins, and Edgar Allan Poe have had the most influenced. As for his nonfiction works, he has asserted that the influences are just too numerous and eclectic to list. Of his nonfiction works the Kriezler series is his most popular and contains his most accomplished work yet, The Alienist, published in 1994. The main character in the series is Dr. Laszlo Kreizler who works with John Schuyler Moore a reporter, Sara Howard a police officer and Stevie Taggart. Laszlo is a child psychologist and a criminal profiler who is very good at finding clues that lead to the arrest or capture of serial killers. The Angle of Darkness and the Alienist are set in late 19th century America while the prequel Surrender happens in 1915 New York. However, Surrender features Dr. Trajan Jones a leading expert on the work and life of Kreizler and criminal psychologist as the chief protagonist. Translated into over 24 languages, the Alienist was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. TNT has also announced that a film adaptation of the popular novel is in the works.

The setting of The Alienist is 1896 New York where a John Schuyler Moore, a New York Times journalist gets a call from Dr. Laszlo Kreizler his former classmate, friend and currently a psychologist. Kreizler “The Alienist” wants his help with a body found horribly mutilated on the Williamsburg Bridge, believed to be that of a teenage prostitute from the brothels of Manhattan. In a highly unorthodox move, Theodore Roosevelt, who is the new police chief asks the two friends to help in resolving the murder mystery. Moore has a remarkable knowledge of New York’s complex criminal underworld, while Kreizler’s super intellect would be invaluable to the investigation. Sara Howard, a secretary in the police department is drafted to assist the two in cracking the case. Working in secret, the motley crew employs psychology and alienism, two new disciplines viewed with public skepticism, to compile a profile of the killer. The dangerous nature of the challenge is not lost on them as they reconstruct the twisted mind and tortured past of a serial killer, who has no qualms killing and is likely to kill again before they find him.

Caleb Carr adopts a twist in The Angel of Darkness, which is a sequel to the first novel in the series, The Alienist. The narrative of Dr. Kreizler and New York City is told from the perspectives of Stevie Taggert a former street urchin whose life on the streets has made him wise beyond his years. The novel is set in 1897, just a year after Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, the authority in the new field of forensic psychiatry tracked down John Beecham, the man responsible for a series of murders in the city. Kreizler still has his former associates from book one help him solve crimes in Angel of Darkness. However, Carr makes it even more interesting by incorporating some minor characters from The Alienist into this work. Into the team come Stevie Taggert, a boy that the team saved from a life on the streets, detectives Lucius and Marcus Isaacson, and Cyrus Montrose a compassionate and powerful citizen of New York City. The team comes together to help Sara, a Spanish Diplomat whose infant daughter has been kidnapped. With the United States and Spain on the verge of war, this case carries with it more danger than the team have ever faced.