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.