Caleb Carr News

Book Recommendation

Posted on 1 Comment

Not Alienist news but for anybody looking for a good read this summer (or winter, if you live in the southern hemisphere), Caleb Carr has recently praised a new Sherlock Holmes novel, Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson, which was released on April 28, 2009. Mr. Carr wrote: “At long last, an author of rare talent combines a thorough, enthusiastic knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes canon with truly rigorous research into, and respect for, what remains one of the greatest and most horrifying unsolved murder cases in modern history: the Jack the Ripper killings. Where others have failed, Lyndsay Faye’s extremely impressive debut novel succeeds, on every level, providing thrilling entertainment without blatant exploitation. It will instantly take a place of distinction among the best attempts of contemporary authors to continue the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, and is, quite simply, a must for Holmes fans and Ripperologists alike.”

Regarding an update of 17th Street content, I have unfortunately been snowed under for the past few months with research and teaching so my travels into the world of 19th century New York have had to be put on hold. I am, however, currently working on an update which I hope will be available in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you know of any Caleb Carr news that hasn’t been posted here, please feel free to contact me so that it can be shared with other visitors to the site. Thanks and happy reading!

Big Update!

Posted on 1 Comment

There are several pieces of site news and Caleb Carr news to make mention of in this update so I encourage you to read this entire post, particularly the second last paragraph (hint, hint).

The most obvious thing to make mention of is that for the first time since the site opened in 2005, 17th Street has a new layout! As you might have gathered, I love historic maps and the one featured in this layout is a panorama of Manhattan from early in the 20th century. Although the overall look is a rather big departure from the previous layout, I hope that you all still approve of it and find it easy to navigate.

In addition to the new layout, I am pleased to announce a new section of the site containing information about Caleb Carr which can be accessed via the Author link in the navigation menu. It contains a summary of Mr. Carr’s education and career, links to interviews he has given over the years, and a list of his book and film works. The only thing missing from that section of the site is a publicity photo. If you know of any relatively recent photos of Mr. Carr that I would be free to use, I would appreciate it if you would contact me. Please note that any photos you suggest will need to be of a similar size and quality to those found elsewhere on this site, and I would like to be able to get permission from the photographer.

Now, onto the news that I’m sure you’re all more interested in.

In completing this update, I made the discovery that Mr. Carr is working as a librettist on composer Ezequiel Viñao’s new opera, Merlin. Although this doesn’t really count as “news” given that the opera has been in progress since the 1990s, I hadn’t heard about it until I stumbled upon the opera’s website recently, so I assume that there are others of you in the same position as myself. Plus, I happen to love opera so this is almost as exciting as a new Alienist book, from my perspective!

For those of you more interested in Mr. Carr’s books, however, the opera’s website also contains another piece of exciting information: it is written that Mr. Carr is currently “continuing work on several creative projects, including a new Alienist volume and the Ezequiel Viñao opera, Merlin.” This, of course, means that we finally have confirmation from a source other than The Age (at last!) that the elusive third Alienist novel is in progress. Love opera or not, I think it’s safe to say that this is good news all round!

Well, I hope you’re all pleased with this month’s site update. As always, if you have any feedback, you’re welcome to leave a comment on this post, post at the message board, or contact me directly.

Board Removed

Posted on

I am sad to say that I have had to remove the message board from this site. I am currently having problems with people hacking into 17thstreet.net so I have decided to temporarily remove any scripts that may potentially be insecure. It upsets me that it has had to come to this. If I find that the message board is missed, I will consider putting another one up – but only if I can locate a more secure script.

Anyway, as this unhappy entry caused me to replace an entry that contained more positive news, I will repeat some of its content below for those of you who may have missed it.

I found the following information written in 2007 from an unlikely source, Big Cat Rescue: “[Caleb Carr] let the cat out of the bag by telling us that there will be a cameo appearance by a feline in one of his upcoming books.” It isn’t clear whether the mentioned book is an Alienist book, but at least the news is positive that he is definitely working on another novel! (And, of course, it’s also great to see that Mr. Carr is active in supporting such a great rescue organisation.)

Third Book

Posted on 1 Comment

I have been getting a lot of emails lately asking me whether a third Alienist book is going to be published. Unfortunately, I have no ‘inside information’ on when a third Alienist book may be getting published. This is an unofficial website and I am not in contact with Caleb Carr. I keep my eye on news alerts, the Random House Publishing website, and Amazon.com in order to keep 17th Street updated but there hasn’t been anything new to report for over two years now.

As I wrote on the Untitled Book page, the last piece of official news – from late 2005 – regarding a third book was simply that one is being written. It is unclear when, or if, this book may be getting published. I’m just as excited about the possibility of a third book as everyone else so you can be sure that as soon as there is ANY news on this subject, it will be posted here at 17th Street.

EDIT: Since writing the above, I found the following information written in 2007 from an unlikely source, Big Cat Rescue: “[Caleb Carr] let the cat out of the bag by telling us that there will be a cameo appearance by a feline in one of his upcoming books.” It isn’t clear whether the mentioned book is an Alienist book, but at least the news is positive that he is definitely working on another novel! (And, of course, it’s also great to see that Mr. Carr is active in supporting such a great rescue organisation.)

Regarding site content, I am currently completing a PhD in psychology (I like to think that Dr. Kreizler would be proud) so I find that I lack the free time to work on comprehensive updates at the moment. I have made some changes to the character pages as promised and I currently am re-writing parts of the Alienist and AoD timelines. The revised timelines should be ready soon.