The Book of the Day: 'The Devil in the White City' by Erik Larson

Sally kicks off a new daily feature

Welcome to The Book of the Day, a new feature in which members of our community spotlight some of our favorite reading material - the mainstays of our personal libraries! We want to note that, while we wish God of the Desert Books could take credit for many of these favorites, they're in no way affiliated with us, and we're not earning anything by promoting them. Books of the Day are just honest-to-goodness recommendations: writing we like a lot and think you'll like, too.

I want to kick off my first entry in this series with The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, by the inimitable Erik Larson. This gripping, meticulously-researched narrative juxtaposes* the story of Chicago-based confidence man and multiple murderer Dr. Herman Webster Mudgett - better known by his alias, H.H. Holmes - with that of noted Chicago architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, tasked with developing the architecture and infrastructure required for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition - the Chicago World's Fair. Both men left an indelible mark on the city at the same time; both men are responsible for Chicago's current standing in the country's collective imagination.