Finished the book....

I finished The Devil in the White City last night. It was a good read; the story (stories, really) are well told and certainly hold the reader's interests. But.

There's always a 'but', isn't there?

The book is written in a more disjointed manner than I had hoped. When I read the blurb on the back it seemed as though the two men's stories were more deeply intertwined than they were. It begins by alternating chapters; first involving the 1893 Columbian World's Fair and it's planning, surrounding the chief planner and architect, Daniel Burnham, then the story of Herman Mudgett, alias H.H. Holmes, a doctor (who graduated from the U of Michigan Medical School, btw) who moved to Chicago to take advantage of the World's Fair and the innocent people, mostly young and single women, who flocked to Chicago. I had expected that Holmes' and Burnham's paths would have directly crossed or one would have somehow influenced the other's life. But this wasn't the case. Larson, the author, admits that they likely never met since they didn't travel in the same social circles.

Larson could have written two seperate books, I think, with much better results. The 1893 Columbian Exposition was an amazing feat of engineering and human drive. The desire of the United States in general, and Chicago in particular, to outdo the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 was plain and simple. The Eiffel Tower was a marvel of the show and was what everyone spoke of. The desire to "out-Eiffel Eiffel" was stated many times in the book. The tales told of the drive to get the Fair to Chicago, the desire of Burnham to make this the grandest fair ever seen -- to the point of hiring the finest architects in the world, including Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and Frederick Law Olmstead, the trials and tribulations of building The White City, so named because all of the important buildings were painted white and to differentiate it from the rest of Chicago, dirty from the coal smoke and the "progress of industry", called "The Black City", in time for the Fair to open, are more than enough to provide a fascinating read on their own.

Likewise, the story of H.H. Holmes (née Herman Mudgett) was a fascinating one all by itself. Holmes was a man born in New England in 1861 and the archetype, or nearly so, of a predatory serial killer. He was a charming and personable gentleman, capable of wooing women with his guile and lies, and making men hate him because of that. He settled in Chicago, near Jackson Park, where the Fair would eventually be built. Through a web of lies, manipulation, and murder, he was able to build a structure which was a hotel to some and a chamber of death to others. That Holmes was able to go on for so long doing the things he was doing without raising the curiousity of the Chicago Police or causing the loved ones of the people who disappeared to suspect foul play any more than they did was amazing. It wasn't even an issue of the police thinking that something was wrong and not being able to figure out what was happening, as occurred a century later with Jeffrey Dahmer and the Green River Killer, it was total ignorance on their part. Holmes, in fact, was quite friendly with the police in the area. He got away with it for a long time before being arrested for insurance fraud. It is unknown how many he killed. At least nine, for sure but the true number is most likely much higher than that. One newspaper estimated it to be as much as 200 but this number is probably high. At any rate, it was more than enough to send him to the gallows.

Larson's writing ability is very engaging and he tells a good story. But I wish it had been done in two separate books, or at least two separate parts of the same book. Each part could have flowed more smoothly, but mentions of what was happening "on the other side" would have helped tie them together.

Did I enjoy the book? Absolutely. Would I read it again, knowing what I know now? Yeah, probably so. This book is unlike any he's written up until now. But I would certainly also give his other books a chance, if the subject matter were as interesting to me as this was. Here's a link to a listing of his books. But use caution, since Amazon lumps him in with Erik Larsen, illustrator and others.