The Devil in the White City

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

By: Erik Larson

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.

Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson’s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.

©2003 Erik Larson (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

National Book Awards, Short-listed

Edgar Allan Poe Award Winner, Fact Crime, 2004

"Engrossing . . . exceedingly well documented . . . utterly fascinating.” —Chicago Tribune

“A dynamic, enveloping book. . . . Relentlessly fuses history and entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel. . . . It doesn’t hurt that this truth is stranger than fiction.” —The New York Times

“A wonderfully unexpected book. . . Larson is a historian . . . with a novelist’s soul.” —Chicago Sun-Times

Fantastic Read

The narrator is expressive - the story is compelling - and the writing grips you and keeps you there. I am LOVING this book.

Interesting, but I was glad it was over

I think I had the same caption for another Erok Larson book. Mother books are meticulously researched, and interesting, but they tend to run on past the point of interesting. I learned a lot, but I finished as and act of will, and not because the story compelled me. If you liked Larsons other work, you'll like this one too.

Architecture, Murder and the Worlds Fair

This book was riviting from start to finish. A fascinating story that revealed some of the facts and events that have made Chicago a city filled with architectural wonders. It shows how architecture shapes our thinking. But since part of the book was also about a sociopathic killer at the in 1900 Chicago, but telling the two stories we get an experience of life in American from 1890 to 1910 that more real than anything I've read on the era. This audio was so good, that for the first time I want to read it again, right away!

Fascinating history of Chicago and the goings on behind thebehind the scenes.

The author presented the material in such an interesting way, giving us the history lesson on the Colombian Exposition and then switching gears to discuss Holmes. Engaging.

Would read more like it

I love the way the book was set up and the performance was fantastic. Would love to read more similar books but haven’t found anything comparable.

Poor reader!

Reader used a song-song, overacting voice very annoying!
Story told in a convoluted manner!

Not a fan of the narrator

Scott Brick reads sooooo slowww. Look at the "length" discrepancy between his and Tony Goldwyn and you'll see he takes over twice as long to read the same story. Also - he called Wilmette, "Will-Meat" which for the millions of us that live here, drove me mad.

great detail and excellent story

great recreation of events in the last century. this work is really well put together and uses almost a detective like approach to the story of both men and how the world affected them and how they affected the world.

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Good book not great

This is a fantastic history of the World’s Fair and the late nineteenth century in Chicago; anything about Chicago usually keeps my interest. Although I’ve still never visited this beautiful, historically rich city, I hope to one day.

I Leave out one star because I feel like H. H. Holmes isn’t as big a part as o was lead to believe.

Still a great read, just a little disappointing in your looking for something in the true crime genre and not history.

If you like history or love Chicago. . .

. . . you will find the intertwined story of the Chicago World’s Fair and the city’s most notorious serial killer an engrossing read. I started off reading a hard copy of the book, which was hard, because I would constantly stop and google the people and places mentioned. Midway through, I switched to listening to it on Audible, and that kept me from taking side trips down rabbit holes. Now I need to go back to Chicago and see the places mentioned in the book.
#read