Book Review: "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon Book Description

Erik Larson—author of #1 bestseller In the Garden of Beasts—intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

I am a fan of Erik Larson and immensely enjoyed his most recent, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin giving it a solid 5 stars and one of my top picks for 2012. Having said that, while I enjoyed this book, perhaps taking on two completely different incidents in history, only joined by them occurring in the same time period was a bit too much. The story of Holmes was so intriguing but I felt like it took a back seat to the story about the building of the fair. That topic alone was worthy of a book in itself. While there is so much that remains unknown as to the number of victims and the specifics of the crime scenes, I was left feeling like the story was rushed at the end and summed up in a couple of short chapters. Overall, the writing style of Mr. Larson is outstanding and he has a gift of compelling narrative with great use of foreshadowing. I learned about the origin of so many historical landmarks and inventions, but will leave those for the reader to discover on his/her own.