Around America in 50 Books

by Wendy H. Jones

Illinois

to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel.

In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium.

These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . .

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

We’ve reached Illinois in our literary trip of the USA; there were so many books to choose from but this one intrigues me because it is a true account of two extraordinary events in North American History.

Blurb

One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world.

The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens.

The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather

Review

I was expecting great things of this book, I love history and I love a good mystery. I appreciate the mystery part of this book is true crime, but I was looking forward to reading about the stories of these two men – one doing good for the city, the other carrying out evil. It is a book of two parts both of which I enjoyed reading but, on balance, I thought the storyline concerning H. H. Holmes was more interesting. I loved reading about the World’s Fair and how it came to being in Chicago. That was fascinating. However, it went into a bit too much detail for my liking and that slowed things down. What of getting a feel of Illinois? Well, I certainly feel I know 18th Century Chicago well. In that aspect it ticked all the boxes. Would I recommend it, yes definitely. But there may be areas that you feel you want to skim rather than read in depth.

Wendy H. Jones is the award winning, international best-selling author of the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries, Cass Claymore Investigates Mysteries, Fergus and Flora Mysteries, Bertie the Buffalo children’s books and the Writing Matters books for writers. She is also a writing and marketing coach and the President of the Scottish Association of Writers. As copy editor for Mom’s, she works hard to ensure content is appropriate and free of grammatical and spelling errors. You can learn more about Wendy on her website: https://www.wendyhjones.com/