Summary: Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.
Review: One thing I really liked about this story is that it is, for the most part, a historical account. The author uses real people and real situations to set the scene and then just fills in the details with his imagination. It reads a little slower, as typical with something that is so in-depth, and I did get a little bored with some of the long descriptions of people or events. But for the most part, I read enjoyed the mix of true crime, fiction and a little bit of history.
7 out of 10 stars
Read this book if you like: historical fiction
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