It’s 1983 in Chicago and you’re about to make your way over to the World’s Columbian Exposition. This exposition was created to celebrate the 400th year anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s journey to the “New World”. On your way there, you hear whispers and murmurs of murders that started to rack up in number in the area, and you begin to question your safety on your journey.
The Devil in the White City was written by Erik Larson in 2003. The book is historical and nonfiction, but is based on the third-person point of view of the characters' assumed thoughts and actions. The novel takes place in Chicago and focuses on two points of view, architect, Daniel H. Burnham, and the infamous doctor, con artist, and serial killer, Herman Webster Mudgett (commonly referred to as H.H. Holmes).
The two storylines begin to intertwine during the World Columbian Exposition, which was directed by Burnham. Holmes was known as a very charming and attractive man, someone who was able to manipulate others to get what he wanted. At the time of the event, Holmes purchases a building that will later be known as the “Murder Hotel”, most can guess what happened inside, but the gruesome details have yet to be told.
I believe this book was paced at a good speed, although there were very slow parts within sections of the book. The action didn’t occur until around the middle-beginning, so it wasn’t a long wait, but it was a good book nonetheless. There were many surprises and details in the book that left it quite captivating, but most of the parts involving the architecture and building of the exposition were a little bit of a bore to read, in my opinion. This book was a good read and I’m glad that I read it and gained knowledge on the events that took place, but I wouldn’t read it again due to the slow pace at points of the book. I do recommend it to those who are interested in true crime since the book is mostly based on that.
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