Erik Larson has written five best sellers that have sold nearly ten
million copies -- including "Devil in the White City," the focus of
Rick's Reading List this week.
Chicago wanted to impress the world when it hosted the World Fair in
1892. It wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as Paris and New
York. So when the Windy City won the rights to host the fair, it
started the monumental task of building what ultimately was called the
White City -- a section of Chicago that wowed the world with the
latest inventions, including the very first Ferris Wheel invented by a
Pittsburgh engineer named George Ferris. Yet while the awe and marvel
of the Fair grabbed headlines, Dr. H. H. Holmes moved through the
darkness of Chicago and became America's first serial murderer -- and
he used the lure of the World's Fair to find his victims.