Caleb Carr’s CFA Master Class

As I’m sure all visitors would be aware, The Alienist TV series premiered last week. For those of you who are new to The Alienist, I strongly recommend reading along with the original novel as you watch the series. To enhance your reading experience, don’t forget that you can find everything you need to know about the novel’s themes, the (real) New York City locations that feature in the novel, and the characters right here.

While you’re waiting for the next episode, The Center For Fiction recently released up a recording of Caleb Carr’s Crime Fiction Academy masterclass from December. You can view the video below.

Introducing Kreizler, John, and Sara

No sooner had I posted about the new trailer for TNT’s upcoming adaptation of The Alienist than three clips were released by TNT to introduce the characters of Dr. Kreizler, Sara Howard, and John Moore. The clip of Daniel Brühl introducing Dr. Kreizler can be found below. The additional clips of Dakota Fanning introducing Sara Howard and Luke Evans introducing John Moore can be found at TNT’s YouTube channel.

Finally, a reminder to those visitors from the NYC region that Caleb Carr will be offering a Master Class this week as part of the Center for Fiction’s Crime Fiction Academy. If you are interested in attending the Master Class, you can view the details of the event and RSVP at the Center’s website. The Master Class will be taking place on Thursday, December 7th at 7:00pm.

Long Overdue Update

My sincere apologies for such a long break since 17th Street was last updated. 2017 has been a massive year for me involving a relocation across the country and starting a new job which has resulted in big changes that have eaten into my leisure time considerably. This is therefore a long overdue update to catch up on the news of the past six months. If there is any major news that I have missed, please feel free to share it with me via the contact form or in the comments below, and I will include it in a later update.

First, as those who have been following TNT’s adaptation of The Alienist would know, filming has now wrapped up and the second trailer for the series was released last month. It can be viewed below. The premiere date for US audiences has been announced as 22 January 2018, so there’s not long to go now.

In addition to the adaptation of The Alienist, there was also an exciting announcement in September that Fox will be developing a one-hour drama series based on Caleb Carr’s most recent novel, Surrender, New York (2016). According to Variety, Richard Wenk (The Magnificent Seven, The Equalizer, The Expendables 2) will be writing and executive producing, with Gail Berman, Joe Earley, and Richard Arlook also on board as executive producers. Curiously, the plot synopsis provided with the announcement indicated that protagonist Dr. Trajan Jones “joins forces with the local state trooper Penelope Howell”, a character who is not in the original novel. Given this description, it will be interesting to see what direction Fox takes the adaptation.

Finally, the Center for Fiction, a literary organisation that connects readers and writers in New York City, has announced that Caleb Carr will be offering a Master Class in December as part of their Crime Fiction Academy. Mr. Carr will be giving “a presentation on his life and work” and will be discussing crime fiction writing. If you are interested in attending the Master Class, you can view the details of the event and RSVP at the Center’s website. The Master Class will be taking place on Thursday, December 7th at 7:00pm.

Alienist Book News, Plus a Casting Change for The Alienist TV Series

My apologies for the delay in news here on 17th Street, but life away from the internet has been incredibly busy with a big interstate move and illness taking me out of action for the past few weeks. That said, there have been a number of news items from the past couple of months that I have neglected to post here due to lack of time.

First, there was some excellent news for Alienist readers outside of the United States last month with Mulholland Books UK announcing that they will be publishing The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness, Surrender, New York, and Caleb Carr’s two upcoming Alienist novels in e-book form in the UK and Commonwealth countries. As an Australian who has not been able to access the Alienist books in e-book form due to rights restrictions, I would like to personally say hallelujah! This is excellent news for those of us outside the United States. The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness will be available in July 2017, while Surrender, New York will be available in 2018. This news also confirmed that the third book in the Alienist series, The Alienist at Armageddon, is due out in 2019; exciting news for those of us who have been waiting for a continuation in the series for so many years.

Second, Caleb Carr wrote an interesting review of Kevin Davis’ recently released nonfiction book, “The Brain Defense,” for The New York Times in early March. This is an interesting article for anyone who is interested in the type of arguments that were posited in Surrender, New York — and if you haven’t read Surrender yet, it may provide you with some incentive to do so.

Finally, although I am not posting all the latest news regarding The Alienist TV series at present (for my reasons, please see my previous blog post), one noteworthy piece of news surfaced today. Deadline has reported that Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) will be replacing Sean Astin as Theodore Roosevelt in the upcoming adaptation. In a statement, TNT indicated that Astin will no longer play the role “because of scheduling difficulties.” In addition, Martin McCreadie has been cast as Sergeant Doyle, a character who does not appear in the books but has been listed on IMDb for 10 episodes of the series.

Once again, my apologies for the delay with these news items. Unfortunately things will continue to be slow here for at least one more month, but hopefully things will start to turn around after that. If there is anything you feel is noteworthy and should be reported on 17th Street that you don’t see here, please feel free to contact me through the comments on the blog or using the contact form. Thanks for your patience.