The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I finally got to read this book that I had seen in so many stores up in Chicago and had heard so much about. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book tells the story of the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) held in Chicago in 1893. It interweaves the stories of two men--Daniel Burnham, the chief architect of the fair, and H. H. Holmes a serial killer who had a hotel near the fair where he committed many of his murders.

Since I am from the Chicago area, I really loved this book because it gave some history of Chicago, and showed how the city was really proving something to the world by pulling off having this elaborate World's Fair. It was fascinating to read about how the men worked to design the various buildings and plan the fair. And it was interesting (yet disturbing) to read about Holmes and all the people he killed. I liked reading about how the detective retraced Holmes' steps and traveled to all different cities to figure out some of his crimes. There obviously weren't all the means of investigating crimes that there are today, so you can really appreciate how hard this detective worked to find out the truth.

This book was such an easy read. Though it is non fiction, it really almost reads like a novel.