the best thing about this book is that it feels like it came out of new york city in the late 1800′s, the time and setting in which the story takes place. besides capturing the mood of a burgeoning city with all its amenities and corruption the author uses fun expressions like ‘alienist’, ‘ring-off’ and ‘mollycoddling’. and even though the central plot is quite grim it almost seems censored by the morals of that time in its telling. from the author: it is never easier to understand the mind of a bomb-wielding anarchist than when standing amid a crush of those ladies and gentlemen who have the money and the temerity to style themselves ‘new york society’.