This is a fabulous story and an absolutely riveting book. And it details events that I must confess I knew absolutely nothing about! Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element if the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush towards the 20th century, The architect was Daniel Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works, and the murderer was Henry Holmes, a young doctor who built his own hotel just west if the fairgrounds – a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and a 3000 degree crematorium.

I loved the way Larson symbolically weaves these two stories together, and paints an invaluable and detailed picture of life at the end of the 19th century. There are many, many treasures in this book – the accounts of the initial design of the White City, the descriptions of dirt and “stink” of Chicago, and the detailing of the engineering marvels that took place at the time. I thought that the account of the invention and subsequent construction of the world’s first Ferris wheel was incredibly interesting.

I think that central theme raised in this book is the question of how much is a city prepared to sacrifice and spend in civic pride, and what are the ultimate costs – both monetarily and to people – in achieving this? The strive to build the White City in time for the World’s Fair entailed many sacrifices, but it also showed how resilient cities can be, and how the sorts of civic decisions can effect urban living for years to come. I’ve never been to Chicago, but this book really stirred my interest in visiting this city.

This is a fascinating book, and a must read!

Michael