In Burgoyne County, New York, abandoned and homeless adolescents are found hanging in horrible fashion. Law enforcement decide a serial killer is on the loose but they can’t narrow the suspect pool. Nearby in the county’s small town of Surrender, Drs. Trajan Jones and Michael Li teach online profiling and forensics courses from the Jones family farm. They used to work in Albany but were fired for shaming officials in too many cases. In which the officials got them wrong but the doctors got them right.
If they get any police work, it is through the sheriff’s department but never in an official capacity, only as consultants. However, with the teenage deaths growing, the upper ranks of the police department secretly ask the doctors to help investigate the deaths. At first they face skepticism about their insights, but it does not take long before it becomes apparent that the doctors may be targets to die for their accuracy.
Surrender New York, by Caleb Carr, draws on New York and Civil War history and draws from his book The Alienist. I usually enjoy his books. However, the heavy use of curse words, even by minor children, and in front of adults who do not chastise them. I realize an author makes his or her own choices and apparently Carr felt cure words fit with the setting of this book. I do wish the audio book had a warning on it at the library that stated it has curse words, but alas, not. Maybe you the reader can look past the curse words and like this book better than I did.
