The Devil in the White City

1893 Chicago is a fascinating place. It’s apparently an extremely important time in America and the world. The heights of the industrial revolution. A time where Edison, Tesla, Houdini, Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Susan B. Anthony were all contemporaries. Architecture was one of the forefronts, as skyscrapers were invented and coined. Central Park had been created. As had the Eiffel Tower.

This industrial time in the Western world, titans are made from mortals [mostly male. White males. With money. And this is a time were Irish and Italian weren’t white.] In this uprising, Daniel Hudson Burnham decides to capture this time with building the World Fair [Think Burning Man but Victorian Globalism in the middle of Chicago]

A darkness runs through Chicago as well. The pollution is rampant. The poor working class face the harsh brunt of unemployment and obscene work conditions. The crony capitalism and the consumerist mentality is in full swing. And this filth is breeding for other scums of the earth.

All these stories, people, events intertwine in the backdrop of America’s midwestern jewel, crisscrossed by railways and economic upheavals to make a truly fascinating piece of historical fiction.

The author’s note also caveats his work by revealing how, by time and place and people; his story is 100% true. All his research has produced a work of historical recording.

But his magic comes in with the twisting braids of his fiction and work.

As you follow this journey you continue to live the lives of all of Chicago’s residents as the city itself undergoes a transformation. The rapid growth is buoyed by increasing pride and growth and stalled by difficult economic times, rising crime, and fire.

Meanwhile, H.H. Holmes builds his nest and stocks it with bones and you find the mind of a true psychopath. No remorse, little reason as this madman takes advantage of every person that is unfortunate enough to cross his shadow. Something about it is for personal gain, but something is also without reason. Simply evil.

These two conjoining stories continue to spin an evolve until this crazy climax.

It reminds me a lot about how it’s better to live in interesting times. These are clearly interesting times. But there have been so many interesting times.