Seldom have I been as disappointed in a book as this one by Caleb Carr. Having read and thorougly enjoyed his first two novels -- The Alienist & The Angel of Darkness -- I was excited to find this newest work and very anxious to read it. Maybe somebody else is writing under his name, because this one shows none of the writing abilities such as the sense of narrative, the attention to detail, the descriptive mastery of his first two. It is almost like this is an outline, sketchy at best, for a tale of great scope. His description of the holocaust created within is so minute, that it removes all sense of purpose for the characters' actions. And he can do so much better. This is just a bad, bad book. Only his name could have sold this one to a publisher. He owes us all an apology and he owes me...