The hopeful dreams of an architect are darkened by a serial killer loose in the city, although not directly. This is featured in the book, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, a historical book about the architect Daniel Burnham struggling to construct the World’s Fair: the Columbian Exposition in Chicago while the serial killer H.H.Homes is killing his victims in the murder castle in Chicago.

For all of the engineers and future architectures, Larson describes the difficult journey Burnham faced as Chicago was picked to build the World’s Fair in the honor of Christopher Colombus. Larson describes the challenge to make the building more beautiful and popular than the Eiffel Tower at the exposition in France, how impossible it was, and the personal problems Burnham and other architects faced. But despite the problems, it managed to get built.

Larson tells the story of another man who was one of America’s first serial killers, H.H. Holmes, and of his life and victims in Chicago and the hotel Holmes built for his murders.

Although the novel is written about two real men during this time period, the style of the story is written as if it was fiction instead of the boring style of a textbook so the read becomes interesting. Also, the book explores how the two different lives are connected although the two men never directly met. The book is a good read and it appeals to many various interests.