I was flying into Chicago at night / Watching the lake turn the sky into blue green smoke

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America – Erik Larson

           As pointed out in the book’s forward, this is the story of two men: Daniel Burnham, one of the creator’s of the World’s Colombian Exposition of 1893, and Dr. H.H. Holmes, one of America’s first serial killers.   Larson is quick to point out that this is a work of non-fiction and for good reason considering that parts of this book read like a haunting tale of historical fiction.  It is at the same time a book on history and a suspense-ridden crime story all at once.

           

Larson is deftly able to combine the stories the creating of the Exposition, with that of the murderous Dr. Holmes, who built a strange hotel which doubled as a base to commit murders on the very guests the Exposition lured to the city.  The race to just construct and finish the World’s Colombian Exposition, or Chicago World’s Fair, in and of itself is suspenseful (Will the Fair be completed on time?  How can they eclipse the grandeur of the Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the  previous Parisian World Fair?), but including the cold-hearted murders of Dr. Holmes, who was murdering people at the same time as the Fair was seeing visitors, ratchets up the suspense.

Dr. H.H.Holmes.  Honestly...would you rent a room from this guy? (photo from Wikipedia)

            However, the central character of the book is the city of Chicago itself and the fabled “White City” of the Chicago’s World’s Fair.  The city seems to fill each page as an all-encompassing background character, yet is a Chicago vastly different than the present city of steel and glass.  Larson is able to show Chicago in a light that is reminiscent of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago,” showing City of the Big Shoulders and the glory of the famed White City built only temporarily on the Midway for the Fair before being demolished.  This is a Chicago were death and danger seemed to loom everywhere to the point of being commonplace, almost as common as the excitement for the upcoming World’s Fair, long before Al Capone, "the Black Sox", or the start of the Cub's current 101-year World Series win-less streak. 

The Museum of Science and Industry, the only remaining building from The White City, photo credit.

While the book I really liked the book, I felt it could have had more.  When reading a book about a very interesting topic, I wanted more little tidbits about the Fair and more history.  Granted, this isn’t just a book about the Fair, but it seemed at times like the Fair was almost background to everything else.  Plus, while Larson clearly wants to draw parallels to the murderous serial killer Dr. Holmes and the Fair’s Director of Works, Daniel Burnham, but aside from them both being ambitions men and living in the same city and time period, the connection wasn’t that apparent.  Still, The Devil in the White City is a strong work of history which reads like fiction.

Rating: 4 out of 5.