[vaxn8r]

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

True story about the building of one of the Chicago Columbia Exposition in 1892 and the famous names behind the scenes foretelling their later works. Burnam, the chief architect of the fair also invented the technology which enabled sky scrapers, especially in Chicago which is a city built on sand and mud! It's amazing to ponder what came of that exposition: the Ferris wheel (the US response to the Eiffel tower from the Paris exposition in 1888), AC electric power on a mass scale, massive water purification systems (until then most cities pulled water directly out of the the same river they dumped their sewage), air conditioning (sort of), Shredded wheat, Cracker Jack, Juicy Fruit. The original Ferris wheel was 264 feet tall with 36 cars that carried 60 of people each. 2 -1000 hp engines powered it. No one thought it could withstand the forces let alone the first big windstorm. It did.

At the same time it tells the story of Herman Mudgett aka HH Holmes, one of the US' most deadly serial killers, who lured mostly women into his death trap hotel, with rooms that were literally gas chambers and an incinerator in the basement to clean up the mess. He killed dozens, if not more, no one knows. But he did it in conjunction with the huge draw that was one of the greatest world expositions.