The Devil in the White City

I recommend it. If you're interested in how the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition came to be, this is the book for you. If you're more interested in H.H. Holmes, there are a wealth of other books to choose from. I think if I'd read this cold I'd have enjoyed it much more, but as it happens, I heard about it from several unconnected people who raved, and thought I should give it a shot. It started out extremely well-written and riveting, but eventually the story became lost in the details, to the point where it felt like it was dragging on because the author couldn't kill his darlings. It also felt like the Holmes story was writtten completely separately, like the author knew his book about the world fair needed something to grab the reader and maintain their attention. It worked on me, but it was frustrating to have the majority of the nearly 400 pages spent on the minutiae of getting the World Fair up and running when there was such rich material to work with on the Holmes side of things. Then again it's a matter of setting expectations - I was ready for a lot more of the devil than what ended up in the book.