393 
Title: [The Devil in the White City]
Author: Erik Larson
Pages: 447
Genre: Nonfiction
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: May 14, 2013
Rating: ****

Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, about Chicago's Worlds Fair and serial killer H.H. Holmes is not a book I would have ever found on my own; credit for this read goes to one of my students, who was assigned the book in high school and was shocked that I had never heard of it, given my own reading habits.  A big thank you goes out to her for a fantastic read.

For most of this book I assumed I was reading historical fiction.  In fact, I assumed as much up until my sister-in-law invited me to see a rock opera about "America's first serial killer, H.H. Holmes."  Thus is the narrative style of the text, that it allows for such misconception - Larson's books is a story that seems to imitate true crime writing, as opposed to an overly technical nonfiction account.  As such, I'm sure the scholarship of the text may be suspect to someone who knows the Fair or Holmes better than I, but as someone with no prior knowledge or experience I found the book to be engrossing, and the characters fascinating.