SURRENDER, NEW YORK by Caleb Carr (fic)

Surrender, is a small rural town in upstate New York which has fallen on hard times.  As many small towns, it has firmly entrenched local politicians and a seasoned police force which has been working overtime on a series of deaths of teens which present as suicides or perhaps even murders. Enter Trajan Jones, a criminal psychologist formerly of the NYC police department and his partner Mike Li, a trace-evidence expert, who have been more or less exiled after a highly but negatively publicized case in the city.  Jones lost a leg to cancer when he was younger, and he wields a cane as a weapon.  He also has a pet cheetah, which he rescued from an abusive animal zoo. They are living with a great-aunt of Trajan on the family estate in the hills of Surrender.  They have quite a unique set-up where they have turned a classic old plane into a lab of sorts and where they teach on-line classes to forensic students. Trajan is a disciple of the methods of Laszlo Kreizler, a Sherlock Holmes type character, who was the hero of a former book of Carr's, "The Alienist."
Trajan being a local has a good relationship with the Surrender police, and has been unofficially called in to help unravel the mystery of the many seemingly suicidal deaths.  Trajan quickly identifies the dead teens as akin to the abandoned kids known as "throwaway children," in previous cases he has worked on.
Years ago I read "The Alienist" and enjoyed it and its turn of the century setting.  Carr is a good writer who occasionally lapses into old fashioned speech patterns which is charming and his settings and descriptions are well presented.  I was disappointed in this overly long book, especially after having read several good reviews.  Trajan Jones and the several other characters are well-drawn and interesting, but I found the plot of the book contrived.  Most unbelievable to me was Trajan's readiness to take on a local teen as a colleague after a brief introduction.  What detective would confide details of a case to an untrained teen?  The boy Lucas, and his sister Amber, did not ring true to me. If you haven't read this author, I would recommend that you read "The Alienist" rather than this book.