I used to have a ‘true crime’ phase, where I read mostly true crime. Although I read it less often now, I still enjoy a well-written true crime book. The Devil in the White City is a book that I’ve heard a lot of good things about (as well as Thunderstruck, another true crime story by Larson), and all the praise led me to checking it out from the library.

The Devil in the White City is the tale of 1893 Chicago and the years leading up to it – It was the year of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, aka the World Fair, and the year before the arrest of H.H. Holmes, one of the most notorious serial killers of all times. The book tells both their stories – of how the world fair came to be and how it almost failed, and how Holmes got away with it again and again, until he didn’t.

I thought the book balanced both stories very well. Each topic could very well be a book by itself, and it would be easy to let one story dominate. Larson alternates between the topic of the fair and what was going on in Holme’s life, managing to balance the pace and tell both stories without either seeming choppy.

To be honest, I didn’t quite understand why these two stories. Yes, they took place in the same location and about the same time, but you would think that the story of something as positive and patriotic (at least to Chicago, if not America) would not relate to the despicable killings of Holmes in any way. Yet it was the aura that Chicago cast, and the hope of the world fair, that probably helped Holmes to go unnoticed for so long. He fit in so well that a lot of people ignored their suspicions of him and let him go about his murderous deeds.

Since this is written in a fairly novelistic style, the book occasionally foreshadows certain events very heavily. I guess it was irresistible, given that we know what happened and it does help to increase the tension, but at times, it felt almost overdone.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t really know much about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition before reading it, and it was eye-opening to see how big an impact it had on our modern lives. So many things that we consider familiar were debuted there, and it’s pretty clear that the people of Chicago succeeded in hosting a good fair. I already knew about H. H. Holmes, but the story here was still shocking and I’m glad that he was caught in the end.

True-crime fans who wish to learn not only about the crimes of Holmes but also more about the time period will be interested in checking this out. As for me, Thunderstruck is going onto my TBR list and I look forward to reading that.