Larson, E. (2003). The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Interest Level: High School upperclassmen to adults of all ages.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2015)

Audie Award for Fiction (2015)

ALA Alex Award (2015)

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Fiction (2015)

Ohioana Book Award for Fiction (2015)

Australian Book Industry Award for Internation Book (2015)

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction (2015)

Idaho Book of the Year Award (2014)

National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (2014)

Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction (2014)

Nominee for Best of the Best (2018)

本屋大賞 Nominee for Translated Fiction (2017)

Dublin Literary Award Nominee (2016)

[For readers who not only enjoy reading about the history of America, engineering feats, and workplace relationships, but also about gruesome serial killer stories.]

State Fair of Oklahoma…mullets, Indian tacos, square mirrors with rockband logos, roach clips. That’s what I can boil it down to. But it was so so fun. Was there a serial killer among us? Maybe. An unsolved murder case from 1981 still haunts me. Two thirteen-year-old girls attended the state fair and were never seen again. I think of it every time I find myself at a carnival, stock show, or fair.

The Devil in the White City is a heavily researched account of all that was taking place in Chicago from 1890 and the birth of the first World’s Fair in the United States to 1895 when serial killer H. H. Holmes was convicted of murder. This book goes into detail about the struggle of securing a city, choosing architects, designing buildings, designing the grounds, and executing the dreams of the most fabulous world’s fair anyone has ever seen inside a carcass-scented city known as a jungle. It’s way more involved than I ever imagined. And I learned about the history of that particular fair. The first Ferris wheel was constructed there. Walt Disney’s dad was a carpenter for the White City, possibly inspiring Walt’s vision for a magic kingdom. The midway was born there. We can thank the 1893 World’s Fair for many everyday things, (elevators, Cracker Jacks, voice recordings). We can also thank it for drawing the wicked to its vicinity. Under many aliases, H.H. Holmes did his dirty deeds. Larson describes Holmes’s calculating, well-planned murders, but how many murders, who knows? He was a ladies’ man and his psychopathic tendencies made him an expert in locating and luring unsuspecting young girls to his murder castle. Yes…a castle. He designed and built a castle just for killing and hiding (or disposing) bodies.

The book bounces back and forth between the events taking place to build The White City (the area where the fair is) and Holmes’s demented doings. There is so much history packed into 429 pages that a second read would probably reveal things you didn’t notice the first time through. Some of the writings about procuring architects and squabbles weren’t that interesting to me, but they are important as you build an understanding of each relationship and how it factors into the success of the fair. And just calling it a “fair” doesn’t seem to do it justice (thinking of fair-to-middlin’ here). I would change it to Magical Grandiose Center for Entertainment. Even if it was temporary and a little shabby. 4 Stars on Goodreads.