The Devil in the White City in The Dusty Bookshelf

Jun 26, 2019 Diana rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2019, first-read, true-crime-read, history-read

2 stars for a book on H. H. Holmes
4 stars for a book on the Chicago Worlds Fair.

Do not go into this thinking it is a book on H.H. Holmes, you will be disappointed. It is a book on the World's Fair in Chicago and how Holmes and his killings were a part of the fair. I learned quite a bit on how the fair was won by Chicago and the problems they had with getting everything finished on time. However, I read this as a horror book club read and was expecting a book on Holmes. So I was fairly disappoint ...more

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May 29, 2012 Hayley Stewart rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Full review can be found here

Despite reading like a fiction novel this is, in fact, classed as non-fiction. Based upon the events leading up to and during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago this book interweaves the lives of the the architect behind the fair, Daniel H. Burnham, and Dr H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who lured mainly female victims to his 'Murder Castle'.

On the World Fair point of view Larson gives us a comprehensive and intriguing telling of the gambles and high stakes that architec Full review can be found here

Despite reading like a fiction novel this is, in fact, classed as non-fiction. Based upon the events leading up to and during the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago this book interweaves the lives of the the architect behind the fair, Daniel H. Burnham, and Dr H. H. Holmes, a serial killer who lured mainly female victims to his 'Murder Castle'.

On the World Fair point of view Larson gives us a comprehensive and intriguing telling of the gambles and high stakes that architects, inventors and engineers alike all had to deal with in order to gain the public's admiration and not be considered a failure after Paris' showing.

Drawing on rich tapestry of press articles and meeting minutes as well as insightful personal journals and letters we get a glimpse into the mind of Daniel Burnham and the pressure he was under to enlist the right architects and engineers and sell them his and his partner's, John Root's, vision.

On the other side of the story we have Dr Holmes, born as Herman Webster Mudgett. Early on he became skilled in scams and later murders, he had a mind that seems just twisted enough to come up with inventive ways to kill and easily dispose of victim's bodies. With a string of marriages, annulments and wives/lovers & their families disappearing he was still clever enough to make sure he didn't get caught.

Holmes created a hotel as part of his business, with a few 'extras' that the guests wouldn't know about until it was too late. Holmes himself decided who he would allow to stay at this hotel allowing only women who were travelling alone in the city, especially those whose personalities allowed him to charm them and become the dominant one in a doomed relationship, whilst he turned away any males by claiming to be full up. It was this way of thinking, of choosing his victims, that made him even more fearsome - he could get away with a lot and could've done so a lot longer if he hadn't slipped up near the end.

Larson doesn't go into analysing Holmes' mind, instead he sticks to giving us the facts (apart from one or two injectures that are mainly there to make it appear more like a novel) and allowing us to come to our own conclusions.

The contrast between Holmes' psychopathic mind and the glory of human achievement created from those of the fair's directors can fail to impress upon the reader at first, but it is there, somewhere amongst the tragedy and horror and the glorious descriptions of the breaking ground architecture. ...more

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May 20, 2014 Suz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014-jan-june

Amazing book! This non-fiction book is as easy to read as any thriller on the fiction shelf and twice as good! The author's descriptions of settings and characters were so detailed they made me feel like I was part of that world. I didn't know much about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair before reading this and had no idea how many famous items and people got their start there. It boggles my mind that such a monumental event has gotten lost in history! Thank you to the author for making this come al ...more

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