The Devil in the White City was written by Erik Larson and was published in 2003. By research, Larson recreates the lives of two real men in the Chicago World Fair. He uses two different plots to show some of the history during this time. One plot line is about Daniel Hudson Burnham, the man who builds the Chicago World Fair, and the other plot is about Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, the man who is a serial killer that goes through the fair to find his victims. The novel starts out by talking about how Chicago wins the bid for the 1893 World’s Exposition. Burnham and his friend/partner are given the opportunity to be the architects for the fair. While building the fair, Burnham faces obstacles, like deaths and injuries while constructing the site. …show more content…
He comes to Chicago looking for work as a doctor or pharmacist. Eventually, he finds a pharmacy job in the location close to where the fair was being built. He buys a lot right next to his pharmacy and uses that place to kill the people and dispose their bodies. Holmes kills many people here and puts their bodies in the basement of his place. Once he figured out that the fair was right next to his building, he turns his place into a “hotel” for people from the fair to stay in. Holmes kills a lot of people during the time of the fair and eventually people start to find out. He eventually leaves Chicago and hides until he is arrested for one of the crimes he did in Philadelphia. A detective investigates Holmes past, and finds out about all the people he had killed. I think Erik Larson set out to show the powerful legacy of both men in the book, Burnham and Holmes. Larson shows that Burnham left behind his energy and brilliance and his skills while making the fair, while Holmes left behind his darkness and cruelty. Larson definitely accomplished leaving their legacy in the book. He was very descriptive and used good, vivid details to get the point across. In my opinion, I think the book was very good. I’m satisfied with the ending because Holmes finally was arrested for his crimes and I think he deserved that. It was definitely worth reading because it shows that the fair had a huge impact on a lot of people, and