In the sweltering summer of New York in 1897 a headless corpse bobs on the surface of the Hudson River. The United States is poised for war in Spain. And the child of a high-ranking enemy diplomat goes missing.

          It is another delicate case for Dr Laszlo Kreizler, the renowned psychiatrist, and his posse of trusted aides, including the Isaacson brothers and the fearless Sara Howard, but in this new novel the cynical voice of the journalist John Moore has been replaced by the cautious optimism of young Stevie Taggert.

          Stevie, a youth plucked by Kreizler from the city’s slums, carries with him the sights, smells and sounds of the city, and through his astonishing narrative Carr’s rich and moving second novel evokes the seething vitality of fin-de-siecle New York.