Devil in the White City - Erik Larson

This was the second book I've read by Erik Larson.  The first was "In the Garden of Beasts" (which I wrote about earlier).  This one was actually written previously by Larson, and is immensely better than the Beasts.  Larson's M.O. is to take a historical event/invention and merge the that story with a historical crime that intersected with the event/invention.  Here, the event is the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.  The crime is a series of murders that occurred in conjunction with the Fair.

The "White City" was the series of buildings built specifically for the fair.  Having not heard much at the Chicago fair, but always enjoying any time I spend in Chicago, it was an interesting read just for the historical aspect.  Larson really brings to life the various architects/builders that put the fair together, showing the struggles they went through, as well as the innovative things they did for the fair.  (They were trying to "out-fair" Paris, who had previously done a World's Fair, where they introduced the Eiffel Tower.)  That part of the story was engrossing.

At the same time, the "Devil" was a shyster who had moved to Chicago to take advantage of the single ladies who were moving there in droves to get away from the country named Holmes.  Holmes purchases some land near the fairgrounds, and constructs a hotel on the property.  He installs a kiln in the basement, as well as a sound-proof torture/gassing room.  Without going into graphic detail of the killings (which there wasn't a ton of evidence of, anyway), Larson lets you come to your own conclusions of what Holmes used the property for.  Some estimates say he may have lured and killed nearly 200 people with the hotel.

Well-written, well-paced and informative; this was a very good book.