The Devil in the White City pg. 1-34

A serial killer on the loose during a time of architectural competition between the individual states as well as between countries. The United States was out to upstage Paris and its newest architectural wonder, the Eiffel Tower. What better timing than that of the four hundred year anniversary since the discovery of the New World? It was up to Burnham and Rook, the top team of architectures in Chicago, to create an entire city in what seemed to be an impossible window of time. The challenge of this vast project is interesting enough to stand on its own however the twist of the serial killer takes the story from interesting to intriguing. Murder mysteries are one of my favorite genres of books. One of my guilty pleasures if you will. So when I heard about how this book told the story of a serial killer at the World Fair and that it was a true story, I simply could not resist.

I was completely entangled in the first couple pages of The Devil in the White City as it started from the end. The broken time line lets you see where the main architect, Daniel Burnham, is after the tragedy of the World Fair and the effect that the tragedy has on him. As I was reading I could not believe that this was a story of non-fiction. Erik Larson's writing style is intriguing and so easily distracts you from the fact that you are reading history. I am not a fan of history at all so being able to read a true story and not feel like I am reading fact stated after fact keeps me interested and wanting to move on and discover what is waiting on the next page.

As the story shifted focus to the beginning of the time line, Larson shifted focus from Burnham and his character to more of a biography of Burnham. At first, it was written like a typical biography. Name. Date of birth. Place of birth. Family. Education. I thought to myself, "okay this is kinda boring but maybe it will get better." And it did. I'm glad I kept reading because even though Larson was describing his architectural accomplishments with his partner Rook (which would be really boring outside of the context of the book), he was also shifting back to his novelistic technique rather than blatantly describing the historical context of the story.

I haven't actually met the serial killer yet however it is a long book and I've only scratched its surface so far. I look forward to the next couple of chapters hoping the thrill of the murders and their cover ups will begin to be revealed.