My Beloved Monster

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Thanks to a helpful visitor to the site, I have been informed that a new Caleb Carr book has recently been announced. A personal memoir, My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat who Rescued Me, is set for publication on April 16, 2024 by Little, Brown and Company. The blurb released on the publisher’s website can be found below:

The #1 bestselling author of The Alienist, Caleb Carr, tells the extraordinary story of Masha, a half-wild rescue cat who fought off a bear, tackled Caleb like a linebacker—and bonded with him as tightly as any cat and human possibly can.

Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he enter into the most extraordinary of all of his cat pairings: Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten, and was languishing in a shelter when Caleb met her. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose Caleb as her savior.

For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the extensive, dangerous surrounding fields and forests. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb’s life-long study of the literature of cat behavior, and his years of experience with previous cats, helped him decode much of Masha’s inner life. But their bond went far beyond academic studies and experience. The story of Caleb and Masha is an inspiring and life-affirming relationship for readers of all backgrounds and interests—a love story like no other.

Though it may not be the Alienist novel some fans might have been expecting, I’m sure this heartfelt work will still be appreciated by the animal lovers among Caleb’s readership. The memoir is available for pre-order on Amazon and other retailers now.

An Important Update

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There is no denying that it has been quite some time since my last update. Unfortunately, 17th Street simply became a casualty of trying to fit too much into too little time. Rest assured that I never had any plans to permanently walk away from something that has given me so much over the years, so I am back to share an important update with those of you who, like me, continue to appreciate these wonderful books.

Let’s begin with the news that I’m sure you are all most interested in. Loyal readers would be aware that several years ago Mulholland Books announced that they would be publishing the long-awaited third Alienist novel in late 2019. When this did not come to pass, it prompted a number of readers to wonder what had happened. I have now had it confirmed that the book suffered a significant delay due to a necessary change in its concept and plot from what had originally been announced. Fortunately, the resulting change has been well-received by everyone involved, and I’m sure we are all looking forward to learning more about the new book’s premise once it is announced.

Even though this is good news for the series, I am sorry to report that this third instalment is also facing an additional challenge. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that Caleb Carr is currently waging a formidable health battle that is slowing his progress on the book. Despite this, I can confirm that Caleb still has every intention of moving forward with the novel in the future and is looking forward to doing so. First and foremost, however, he needs to continue to focus his energy on his ongoing treatment. I hope you will join me in wishing Caleb the very best as he fights this important battle.

Finally, regular visitors to the website will be aware that this update also brings change to the air. After many years with the old site layout, I decided it was time to finally be refreshed. So, in honour of Caleb’s birthday today, I am pleased to share 17th Street’s new look with you all. I hope that you like the layout and find it easy to navigate. You may also notice some small updates to the formatting throughout the site over the coming weeks.

The State of the Sequels

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As I reported on the third Alienist book page, in April of 2016 it was announced that Mulholland Books would be publishing two new Alienist novels that will act as ‘bookends’ for the two current novels in the series, The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness. It has since been announced that the first of the two new novels will be titled The Alienist at Armageddon and the blurb for the book can be found on the novel’s Amazon page:

When The Alienist was first published in 1994, it became a literary phenomenon, sold millions of copies and was a worldwide sensation. It became a modern classic, and a cornerstone of the historical suspense genre.

After more than twenty years, the Alienist is back! The Alienist at Armageddon begins in the winter of 1915, soon after the start of the First World War. Reuniting the original’s beloved characters, the story is told from the perspective of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler–the famous psychologist, or “alienist,” and his friend and comrade, John Moore, crime reporter for the New York Times. A massive explosive detonates mere feet from Kreizler’s home, marking the fourth in New York City in as many months.

With his friends at his heels, Kreizler takes up his own case, and the cases of the other explosions. Amid the turmoil in New York City, they receive a news report: the RMS Luisitania, a British passenger ship bound for Liverpool from New York with Americans on board, has sunk mysteriously just eleven miles off the Irish coast. With international tensions high at the onset of the Great War, and many in Europe clamoring for American intervention, Kreizler’s case threatens to embroil not only his own life, but the lives of his countrymen, in the greatest and most deadly conflict modern civilization had ever seen.

According to the Mulholland Books website, the novel is scheduled for release on September 1st, 2019 — this year! I, for one, am very excited to see Mr. Carr move the series forward after a long break (over 20 years) by moving the time period during the novels forward in a similar way; we last saw Kreizler and the team in their 30s and 40s in 1897, and we will now be meeting them again 18 years later. It will be wonderful to reacquaint ourselves with the team and to learn what has transpired in their lives during the intervening time. Taking our characters into the murky waters (pun very much intended) of international tensions surrounding the First World War will be a fascinating way to return to the series.

According to the original book deal announcement, a second novel, The Strange Case of Miss Sara X, will also be published by Mulholland Books. This one, however, will take us back in time again, presumably to the late 1870s or early 1880s, assuming the events in the summary from the publisher’s press release matches the timeline already established in the series so far. In this novel, “a youthful Kreizler, after finishing his psychology training at Harvard, falls under the spell of William James, has his first run-in with Roosevelt, and delves into the secret life of Sara Howard, heroine of the first books.”

A Long Overdue Update and Future Plans

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It has been nearly a year since I last updated 17th Street and so much has happened in the interim.

For those of you who are new to the site or discovered 17th Street as a result of the 2018 TV adaptation of The Alienist, you may be unaware of this website’s history. 17th Street was first opened in 2005 with the intention of providing interested readers with everything they could ever want to know about Caleb Carr’s Alienist books. Over the years, the website has experienced both busy and slow periods, primarily due to a lack of news about upcoming books and my own study/work commitments. Even so, the site slowly grew and developed into the resource you see today.

For the past year, I have been extremely busy with work. However, I have also been devoting a lot of time to the development of another project that evolved out of my love of classic literature. Anybody who has been a long-term visitor to the website will be familiar with a series of blog posts that I started writing in 2013. These 17th Street “Book Blogs” provided short reviews of 19th century classics and historical nonfiction that I felt may be of interest to readers of the Alienist books. These were some of the most enjoyable blogs for me to write, so it should come as little surprise that this love of history and classic literature led me to start working on a new project that directly relates to those interests: revitalising some of the finest works of literature from around the globe. While I will not be discussing the project in any depth here, readers who are interested in seeing what I am doing now, particularly those who also enjoy classic literature, are welcome to visit the home of my new endeavour, Sophene Armeniaca.

Although it may seem as though I have abandoned 17th Street, this is not the case. I still love the Alienist books—they hold a special place in my heart—and I am hopeful that one day we will see a sequel published. Even so, I did not feel as positively about the TV series that emerged as a result of the books. I did watch the series in 2018, but I felt that it deviated too far from the source material for me to truly appreciate. I understand that those of you who found 17th Street as a result of the TV series will feel differently to me. Although I hope fans of the adaptation do not feel unwelcome here, visitors need to understand that the reason I maintain this website is for the books, not for any adaptations.

All of this brings me to the directions I will be taking with 17th Street into the future. As I mentioned above, my new endeavour is very time consuming, which means that I have much less time to devote to other projects such as 17th Street. In saying this, I will not be closing the site and I would like to become active here again in the future; however, this comes with a caveat. Ultimately, I want to return to my roots with this website. This means that I will not be providing any updates about adaptations here. I may occasionally discuss a book that relates to an adaptation (such as the upcoming adaptation of The Devil Soldier), but that is as far as I will be going. Any book-related news will still be posted here.

Thank you for your continued support and I hope you continue to return in the future.