Jennifer Hoeflich - The Devil in the White City

I chose to read The Devil in the White City because I had read another book by Erik Larson last year, In the Garden of Beasts. I wholeheartedly loved the premise of The Devil in the White City. By writing a book about an architect and a murderer operating in the same city at its most glorious hour, Larson sets up a beautiful dance of contrasts that makes the book more interesting to read than one about just about the architect Daniel H. Burnham or just about Henry H. Holmes, the murderer. The fact that the story revolves around the Chicago World Fair gives the story an atmosphere of excitement and awe. Even when the outcome of matter at hand has already been mentioned such as the vote of which city will host the world fair (spoiler: it's Chicago, as mentioned on the book jacket and in the prologue), there's this wonderful tension and suspense. The way that the two men are portrayed adds to the book's appeal. Larson doesn't cast Burnham and Holmes as the archetypal hero and villain or saint and demon, as tempting such treatment would be, even in a historical book. Instead, the author writes the two men as exactly that, men. They both have a personality and habits. What separates them from the common man of the period (which both born as) or even ourselves, is not who they were but what they did. Even if the people only flit into the narrative for a few pages, such as jeweler Icilius “Ned” Connor, I was left with an understanding of their respective character. The only real problem I have with the book is related to this. There are so many people given in such detail that it is incredibly easy to forget who a person is and, unlike In the Garden of Beasts, The Devil in the White City does not have a list of dramatis personae. Regardless, I found the book to be enjoyable to read as well as being informative.