HAWAII SCANDAL by Cobey Black

Hawaii Scandal by Cobey Black was published in 2002 by Island Heritage Publishing. This is a non-fiction true-crime story set in Hawaii in 1931. 

Thalia Fortescue Massie was a Washington D.C. socialite who, in September 1931, was living in Hawaii with her husband, Navy Lieutenant Thomas Hedges Massie, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor. When the Massies attended a Saturday night party with two other couples at the Ala Wai Inn in Honolulu, Thalia decided to leave the party alone and was later found wandering along a road not far from the Inn at 1:00 the following morning by a passing car. Beaten and suffering from a broken jaw, Thalia told the driver and his passenger that she had been abducted and assaulted by a group of young men but couldn't identify them and didn't know what kind of car they had. Later, when questioned by the police, she claimed she had been raped and assaulted by 5 local Hawaiian boys and was able to provide a partial license plate number for their vehicle. As time went on, Thalia would repeatedly change her story. 

Earlier that same night, five young men, two of Hawaiian ancestry, two of Japanese ancestry, and one of half Chinese/Hawaiian ancestry... were arrested for assaulting a Hawaiian woman. Later, they were also charged with the rape of Massie, which they all denied. So, was Thalia's description of her assailants coaxed from her by the police? Was it based on bigotry or merely a convenience due to the arrest of the five young men earlier in the evening? Or... was Thalia herself covering up for a dalliance gone wrong? 

If you're not already a true-crime buff, Black's Hawaii Scandal may turn you into one. For those readers who lean toward this subgenre of non-fiction... this book may just become your version of nirvana. Murder, mayhem, and lies. Add a wealthy and beautiful socialite from a famous family, her handsome young husband, a vindictive and overbearing (some might call evil) mother, as well as a well-known attorney, and you have all the stuff that makes for a good old-fashioned murder mystery. Except...it's all true, and this book is for you.  

My Personal Rating is ⭐⭐⭐⭐

MASTERING the ART of FRENCH MURDER: An American in Paris Mystery by Colleen Cambridge

Mastering the Art of French Murder: An American in Paris Mystery by Colleen Cambridge, published in 2023 by Kensington Books, is a work of fiction. The novel centers around Tabitha Knight, an expatriate that moves from Detroit, Michigan, to Paris, France, shortly after WWII. She lives with her Grand-père and Oncle Rafe across the street from her new best friend and confidante, Julia Child, before her future career as a world-renowned French chef.

Julia's sister Dorothy or Dort, as she is known, lives upstairs from her and often invites the members of an American theater troupe she works with over for drinks after an evening's performance. While attending one of these gatherings, Tabitha meets a young woman named Thérèse, who works in the coat check room at the theater. By the end of the evening, the woman turns up dead, and except for the murderer, Tabitha is the last person to see her alive. 

When the murder weapon turns out to be one of Julia's best chef's knives, and Tabitha's address...written on a piece of paper by Tabitha herself... somehow finds its way into the victim's pocket, it doesn't look good for this new American in Paris. Tabitha soon finds her life in danger when she puts her amateur detective skills to work, much to the chagrin of the local police...Inspecteur Merveille, to be exact. 

Cambridge's Mastering the Art of French Murder has all the elements needed for a good solid mystery. Murder, mayhem, and international intrigue abound. However, some characters needed to be fleshed out more...two prime examples are Inspecteur Merveille and Oncle Rafe. Is there a possible relationship brewing beneath the surface between Tabitha and Merveille? Exactly, who is Oncle Rafe, and what is in his past that is often hinted at but never spoken of? 

Too much time and attention were also devoted to Julia's disastrous attempts at making mayonnaise. When Julia makes an excited phone call to Tabitha to come over to her apartment to sample the frothy concoction, as it turns out, it seems overplayed. It leaves the reader with the impression that the Julia Child character is a highly-strung, somewhat silly woman, which the real Julia Child was not. It also adds nothing to the plot or the solution to what could be an excellent story, minus some of the minutiae that gets in the way at times.

My Personal Rating is ⭐⭐½

The FIFTH ASSASSIN by Brad Meltzer...

The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer was published in 2013 by Grand Central Publishing. It is the second book of the Culper Ring series, which picks up where book one, The Inner Circle, ends with the main character, archivist Beecher White inducted into the modern-day Culper Ring.  

It is essential to understand what the Culper Ring is before diving into any of the three books in Brad Meltzer's Culper Ring Series, so let me explain. The Culper Ring was a real, honest-to-goodness network of American spies operating during the American War of Independence. The Ring was organized in 1778 and was used to provide General George Washington with information on British troupe movements.¹ Meltzer's Culper Ring Series assumes that the spy ring still exists. However, the plot twist is that two separate factions within the organization are working in opposition. 

This installment begins with an unknown assassin in Washington, D.C., attempting to recreate the assassination plots successfully achieved by four of the most infamous killers in U.S. history, John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Throughout history, everyone believed the four killers were lone gunmen. However, Beecher White is not convinced. Through his investigation, he discovers that the four assassins may have worked together over the past hundred years. 

It's up to Beecher and the Culper Ring to find answers to the Who, What, Why, and How questions that remain unresolved before the copycat assassin finds its mark...the current President of the United States. Can it be done, but more importantly...can it be done before the assassin succeeds? 

This is an absorbing tale with more than one unexpected turn of events. I enjoyed this novel very much, but since many of the characters and subplots are continuations from the first book, I recommend reading the books in sequential order. I think you'll be glad you did.

My Personal Rating... ⭐⭐⭐⭐

THE LIE: When DNA Reveals the Family Secret by Heather Dawn Gray

The Lie: When DNA Reveals the Family Secret by Heather Dawn Gray, published in 2019 by hdg Publishing. The story centers around Jahana, a college professor and Muslim woman living in Canada, married to Barid, and mother of two young daughters on a quest to discover the truth about her heritage when a small tube of saliva upends her life forever. 

Noosha never volunteered or answered questions about her people. After her death, Jahana's curiosity about her Maman and her family intensified, and her lack of knowledge only compounded the grief she felt over the loss of her mother.

To support his wife, Barid buys a DNA testing kit for Jahana, hoping it will help ease her sadness by finding long-lost relatives from the maternal side of her family and answering the mystery surrounding her beloved Maman. No good deed goes unpunished, though; when the results come in, Jahana is shocked that the test reveals that she is not...a 'descendent of Muhammed,' as she always believed based on the childhood teachings from both her parents. Instead, Jahana discovers that she is an Ashkenazi Jew. 

DNA is passed from both parents to the child. That's an undisputed fact. So which parent did Jahana inherit her Jewish ethnicity from...mother, father, or both? The revelation that she's not Arabic, as she grew up believing, is devastating news to Jahana and potentially dangerous. She must keep this information secret from those closest to her as she attempts to get to the bottom of what promises to be one of the greatest scandals in her family history. 

Where does Jahana begin? Her father would be the most logical starting point, but he's made it clear that he does not want Jahana to take the DNA test in the first place. As a matter of fact, he is adamantly opposed to it. The question is, why? Does Baba already know the secret? If not, what will he say when he finds out, and if he does know...  then why was Jahana never told? Suppose Jahana's paternal cousin Mishal would also be willing to take a DNA test. Would the results of her test complicate matters further? 

And to make matters worse, Jahana's husband, Barid, is a strict Muslim with pointed antisemitic views. What impact will Jahana's discovery have on their marriage and the lives of their children? Barid bought the DNA test as an anniversary gift for his wife. Not exactly romantic, but now that she's taken it, will this be their last anniversary as a married couple because of the results? 

How does Jahana get the answers to all the questions swirling around in her head without revealing the secret that carries a threat that could likely unravel her entire way of life?   

The Lie: When DNA Reveals the Family Secret is a tense and thought-provoking work of fiction that opens up a line of questioning that anyone that has ever taken or is contemplating taking a DNA test must ask themselves, starting with...can you accept the outcome that may alter everything that you once thought you knew about yourself and your family? Or will you turn your back on the results as though they don't exist? You'll need to read the book to find out how Jahana answered these questions.

My Personal Rating is ⭐⭐⭐⭐

DROWNING by T.J. Newman

Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by T. J. Newman, published in 2023 by Simon & Schuster. This work of fiction is an aviation disaster thriller that is not for the faint of heart.

When Flight 1421's engine explodes shortly after takeoff with 99 souls aboard, the pilot has no choice but to ditch the Airbus into the Pacific Ocean near the island of Molokai. Those passengers that did not perish upon impact are left with a take-it-or-leave-it decision to make... evacuate the plane and run the risk of falling victim to the burning jet fuel on the water's surface, or follow the advice and insistence of Will Kent, an engineer by trade and fellow passenger to stay aboard the aircraft. The only problem with that plan is that there is a limited amount of oxygen onboard the ditched jet, it's slowly filling with water, and there's a genuine threat that looms over their heads of drowning when the plane sinks and or breaks apart as it descends further down into the sea. 

Twelve passengers and crewmembers opt to remain on the plane, Kit Callahan, the pilot who takes command; the flight crew, Kaholo, Jasmine, Bernadette, and Molly; passengers Ryan, widowed in the crash; Andy, the resident jackass; an elderly couple, Ira and Ruth; Will and his 11-year-old daughter Shannon (two of the main protagonists in the story), and Maia a young girl close in age to Shannon traveling alone.  

Chris Kent is Will's estranged wife and Shannon's mother. She also owns and manages an ocean salvage operation company. While working on a government salvage job on a neighboring island, Chris learns of the crashed jet where her daughter and soon-to-be ex-husband are passengers and rushes to the scene, crew, and equipment in tow. She is ultimately recruited (at her insistence) by the Navy in the rescue efforts of the Airbus. 

As the wrecked plane teeters on the edge of a cliff 200 feet below the water's surface and is already close to where no one can come to its aid, can Chris devise a method to get the passengers off the jet? Can Will and the other plane passengers find a way to keep the fuselage watertight, at least long enough for rescuers to help them evacuate the sinking plane safely?   

Interwoven throughout the novel is a subplot concerning the damaged relationship between Will and Chris, the loss of their eldest daughter Annie, and the overprotection of their youngest, Shannon. Can they put the past behind them, or is it too late?

Some parts of Newman's Drowning are challenging due to their intensity. Also, some technical descriptions concerning the rescue efforts are hard to follow. If you fear the water, flying, or both, this book is not for you. However, if you are looking for a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is the one.

My Personal Rating is ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

 

The SENTENCE is DEATH: a Novel by Anthony Horowitz...

The Sentence is Death: a Novel by Anthony Horowitz was published in 2019 by Harper Publishing. It is a classic yet modern-day whodunit with two main characters that couldn't be more different. Horowitz has again done a great job inserting himself into the second book of the Hawthorne and Horowitz Series as both narrator and one of the two protagonists in the story. This well-crafted novel has two storylines at work. 

The main plot centers on investigating the murder of a high-priced divorce attorney, Richard Pryce, in his home. A bottle of wine is used as a murder weapon. The catch...Richard doesn't drink, so where did the bottle come from, and why was this the weapon of choice? 

The subplot focuses on the slightly contentious relationship between the two men for whom the series is named. 

The storylines intersect when the police struggle to solve the case and call Daniel Hawthorne, a former detective and now a private investigator, to assist. Hawthorne, in turn, calls on Anthony Horowitz to follow him around, take notes, keep his mouth shut, and at the end of the day...write a book about him and the case he's currently working on...even though their first joint venture has yet to be published. Unfortunately, Hawthorne isn't very forthcoming with many, or any details for that matter, about his personal life to provide Horowitz with any background color to enhance the story. In addition, the two men aren't particularly fond of each other, or Horowitz, like most people, isn't that fond of Hawthorne. However, Anthony is interested in the case and again agrees to partner with Daniel on this latest venture. 

The book has all of the bells, whistles, and red herrings necessary to keep the story moving forward, one of which I could have done without. You must read the book to discover which one and whether you agree. You will definitely form an opinion. How does it all play out in the end? Again, you must read the book. But, overall, I think you will be satisfied.

My Personal Rating is ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The CHESTER CREEK MURDERS by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

The Chester Creek Murders by Nathan Dylan Goodwin was independently published in 2021 and is the first book in the Venator Cold Case Series, with the story centering on the murders of three young women whose bodies were dumped in Chester Creek. 

Detective Clayton Tyler is a police officer assigned to review and solve cold cases for the local police department. The file he chose to start with is the Chester Creek Murders. The problem? The murders were committed around 40 years ago, and no new clues or information has been revealed since the original investigation. 

With justice long overdue, Detective Tyler contacts Venator, a Utah-based company specializing in cutting-edge genetic genealogy investigations. Can this small team of investigators, using their expertise in forensic genealogy assisted by 21st-century technology, analyze the DNA evidence and find the identity of the person responsible for the three murders?

Goodwin’s novel explores the lives of the three victims to determine whether there is a shared connection between them and or the killer. It also delves into the personal lives of the Venator investigators and Detective Tyler and what drives them, adding a human element to the characters and keeping the story from becoming overly science-driven and dry. 

Genealogy-buffs will appreciate and recognize the research techniques and types of records searched for by the Venator team, making this book an excellent reference manual for their own research pursuits. 

So if you enjoy a good mystery and have a passion for genealogy, this book is for you.

My Personal Rating is: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

MIDNIGHT in the GARDEN of GOOD and EVIL by John Berendt

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, published in 1994 by Random House, is a nonfiction, true crime novel set in the Deep South.

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia. It has a charming Southern ambiance and a vibrant history. It has many cultural attractions, historical landmarks, and works of art in various architectural styles. In addition, it has a large St. Patrick's Day parade, a famous river port, a renowned art college, and a beach nearby. Savannah is also a quirky city where you might find a man walking an invisible dog and a drag queen becoming a key witness for the defense in a high-profile murder trial. So it's no surprise that The Hostess City of the South is as much a character in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as any human being involved in the novel. 

The book chronicles John Berendt's experiences while living in Savannah and the real-life events surrounding the 1981 murder of 21-year-old Danny Hansford, a profane young man with an explosive temper, and the trial that followed.

Jim Williams was a historic preservationist and antiques dealer, partially responsible for renovating historic downtown Savannah in the 1950s. He also renovated his home, Mercer House, once owned by the late composer Johnny Mercer, making it one of the grandest homes in Savannah. After finishing the restoration, Williams threw a glamorous Christmas party that soon became one of Savannah's most sought-after annual events. At the time of the story, John Berendt, who wrote a monthly column for Esquire Magazine, was there to write an article about Williams' Christmas party. 

While interviewing Williams for his article, Berendt meets part-time employee Danny Hansford during his tour of Mercer House. He is shocked that Hansford has such unlimited access to the home. Williams explains that he has a medical condition, which requires always having someone nearby in case he should blackout as his justification for Hansford's access to the house. So, as a trusted employee, why did Jim Williams kill Danny Hansford? Was it blackmail, self-defense, or a well-planned murder? The answer is in the pages of the book.

John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a true-life story that reads like a combination travelogue and murder mystery with a bit of history thrown in for good measure. The book is replete with eccentric, slightly off-center, and downright odd fellow characters. Berendt's novel became a New York Times Best Seller after its publication in 1994 and stayed there for four years. If you have yet to read it, it's worth reading, and if you have read it... it's worth reading again.

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler was published in 1939 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. It is a work of fiction told in the first-person point of view. This classic whodunit introduces the reader to the quintessential hardboiled detective, Philip Marlowe, the main protagonist, and narrator. 

The story takes place in Los Angeles and centers around the private detective's investigation into a blackmail scheme against Carmen Sternwood, the wild young daughter of General Sternwood, an elderly millionaire who has his hands full with both of his spoiled and impetuous offspring.  

The General hires Marlowe to deal with the latest blackmail plot. This one was perpetrated by Arthur Gwynn Geiger, the owner of an illegal pornography-lending library, against Carmen. As a matter of fact, this is the second time she's been faced with blackmail. The previous scheme was put into motion by a man named Joe Brody, a grifter who tries and fails to take over Geiger's racket. That blackmail plan ended when General Sternwood paid Brody off. With this latest attempt, the General hires Marlowe to, in essence, make this problem disappear. It seems Geiger has nude pictures of Carmen and intends to sell them unless she (or her father) can come up with the cash to get the photos back. 

During their initial meeting, the General also tells Marlowe about his eldest daughter Vivian who is in a loveless marriage to a man named Rusty Regan. But, unfortunately, it appears that Rusty has vanished. While determining whether General Sternwood wants him to look into the disappearance, Marlowe heads over to Geiger's bookstore, where he discovers the secret-pornography business being run out of the back of the shop.

Marlowe stakes out the bookstore and then follows Geiger home, where he witnesses Carmen Sternwood enter the house; a few moments later, there's a scream, the sound of gunshots, and two cars speeding away; Marlowe enters and finds Geiger's dead body and Carmen naked and strung out on drugs beside an empty camera. He takes Carmen home and then returns to Geiger's house, only to find that his body has been removed. 

When Marlowe gets a phone call from the police the next day telling him that Sternwood's car was found off the pier with the murdered body of the Sternwood chauffeur Owen Taylor inside, Marlowe knows that he is getting himself deeper and deeper into a much bigger scheme than what meets the eye and is putting his own life in danger due in part to all of the unanswered questions this mystery unfolds for the detective the longer he investigates.  

This novel is rife with atmosphere, plot twists, and a cast of characters you will remember. Unfortunately, like its film version, The Big Sleep has been called cryptic, confusing, and by some...impossible to follow. It has a complex plot, and I admit taking a few notes while reading the book to keep it all straight. You may want to judge for yourself, but none of this interfered with my enjoyment of reading this classic detective yarn.

My Personal Rating is ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

The MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett was published in 1930 by Alfred A Knopf, Inc. It is a hardboiled detective work of fiction. The story is told in the third-person narrative. 

The main character is Sam Spade, a private detective at the San Francisco Spade & Archer Detective Agency. The agency is approached by a potential client calling herself Ruth Wonderley. It seems Miss Wonderley wants to hire Sam and his partner Miles Archer to follow a man named Floyd Thursby, who ran off with her sister Corinne. 

The story told by Miss Wonderley is that she has made arrangements to meet with Thursby. But he refuses to let her see her sister, so she wants to hire the detectives to trail him and find out where he's staying. Neither Sam nor Miles is buying into her story, but the money she will pay them is too good to pass up. Miles volunteers to take the first shift tailing Thursby but is shot and killed while on the job. When Thursby is also later killed, Sam becomes the chief suspect and must now prove his innocence in Thursby's murder. 

Sam must also find out who killed Miles. The question is, why? For the answer...who could say it better than Sam Spade and the author himself? 

 "When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something  about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around... bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere. -Sam Spade"

― Dashiell Hammett, quote from The Maltese Falcon¹

I will not tell you more of the story; you'll have to read the book, which has been in print for over 90 years, so that should tell you something. This book has been the basis for three movies, but only one has become a classic. If you're a film buff, you know which one I mean. 

If you like hardboiled detective fiction, especially from the genre's golden age, this book is a classic in every sense of the word. It's a great story and one you'll enjoy.

References:

¹The Maltese Falcon Quotes by Dashiell Hammett | Goodreads

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig was published in 2020 by Viking, an independent publisher of Penguin Random House. It is a fantasy story centering around Nora Seed, a woman caught between life and death after attempting suicide over events that occurred in her life years earlier. 

The story takes place in the Hazeldene School Library in Bedford. Nora was a professional swimmer until she gave up the sport, much to her father's disappointment. In a state of flux about what she will do with her future, Nora discusses her concerns with Mrs. Elm, the librarian at the Hazledene School. Mrs. Elm points out to Nora that now that she is free from the rigors of swimming, she can do and be anything she wants. When Nora discovers that her father has died from a heart attack, Mrs. Elm comforts her during her grief.

Fast forward 19 years, and Nora is leading an uninspired life. Within two days, Nora's cat dies, and her estranged brother comes to Bedford to visit and ignores her; she's also fired from her job at a music store where she works and loses her only music student when he cancels his lessons. Coupled with earlier events in her life, Nora is spiraling into a depression. Events such as her mother dying of cancer, breaking her engagement to Dan two days before their wedding, turning down the opportunity of moving to Australia with her best friend, and backing out of becoming a rockstar with her brother Joe and his best friend, Ravi, are the contributing factors. Finally, with her life imploding, Nora writes a suicide note and washes down a handful of pills with wine. 

When Nora awakens, she finds herself in a building filled with books, confronted by someone who is the spitting image of the school librarian, Mrs. Elm. Hovering between life and death, Nora soon comes to learn, she is in an in-between state. Where exactly is she, you ask? It's a place called the Midnight Library, and the premise is that it allows her to move between an infinite number of possible versions of her life. Nora must use this library to find a life worth living before she dies, which may sound confusing because death is, after all, Nora's primary objective, or is it? Still, she engages "Mrs. Elm" by trying on countless lives and attempting to find and understand the meaning of life to her.

Midnight Library is a fantasy work of fiction on an unsettling topic. It brings the readers along Nora's journey to rethink some of her choices and save her own life.

My personal rating is ⭐⭐⭐½

The BULLET THAT MISSED by Richard Osman

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, published in 2022 by Pamela Dorman Books, is another excellent installment in the Thursday Murder Club Mystery series that features a loveable geriatric group of friends living in a retirement community outside of London. Much like a book club, they hold weekly meetings and use some of their pre-retirement skills, Elizabeth Best, a former spy; Ron Ritchie, a longtime union organizer; Ibrahim Arif, an ex-psychiatrist; and Joyce Meadowcroft, a retired nurse, to solve cold murder cases. The group is called The Thursday Murder Club, and this review is about the 3rd book in the series.  

Elizabeth has a lot on her plate, which includes her husband's dementia which seems to be worsening by the day. A new foe sends her threatening notes, makes threatening phone calls, and ultimately pays her a visit with a kill-or-be-killed demand. In addition, the cold case the group has committed to resolving is heating up. It is a decade old and relates to the murder of Bethany Waites, an investigative reporter about to crack a case of tax fraud wide open. But unfortunately, before Bethany can break the case, her car careens off a cliff, and her body is never found. 

Never content to limit their research to online activities, the club members manage to wheedle their way into situations that give them access to Bethany's friends and colleagues, the chief constable that worked the case, a drug dealer the group previously put in jail, and wants to kill Ron as soon as she gets out, along with an assist by many other unsavory characters. But, of course, all this leads to a full schedule for this group of retirement village sleuths. 

From the crafty Elizabeth, kind-hearted Joyce, brilliant Ibrahim, and the fussy but loyal Ron, this quartet of friends are the ones you want around when things go sideways. The Bullet That Missed is as suspenseful as it is entertaining. In other words, another great story from an author that knows how to write them. 

  

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

The DEVIL in the WHITE CITY by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson, published in 2003 by Crown Publishers, is a historical non-fiction book presented in a novelistic style.

The Devil in the White City story occurs between 1890 and 1895, mainly in Chicago. It weaves together the true stories of Daniel Burnham, the architect who created some of the most beautiful architecture of the day and was responsible for the grandeur of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Then there is Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, often called the first serial killer in the United States. He roamed the streets of Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair. Holmes built an elaborately constructed hotel with its own gas-filled vault, later dubbed the 'murder castle.' The hotel was adjacent to the fairgrounds, and upon its completion, Holmes began to accept female guests. Unfortunately for them, they started disappearing.

Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City reads like fiction. What's unfortunate is that it's not. Nevertheless, Larson has captured the true story of two men at opposite ends of the social scale and what happened when a great city like Chicago, which should have been experiencing one of the best times in its early history, was the backdrop.

Dazzlingly beautiful neoclassical buildings provided the landscape along the city's south lakefront for the 1893 Columbian Exposition, which promised to be the most spectacular World's Fair of the 19th Century. With the introduction to the latest technological innovations on full display, the spotlight was on this toddling town. And that spotlight would also be shining down on one of the darkest episodes in the city's history up to that time. 

Chicago is indeed no stranger to tragedy. Before the start of the fair, there was the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, followed by The Haymarket Square bombing in 1886, to name two. But can the City of Big Shoulders rise like a Phoenix from the ashes after the damage caused to its reputation thanks to the brutal murders committed by the New England-born con artist and serial killer that cast a dark shadow over the White City? 

This true crime, non-fiction novel is a must-read for history buffs. So what are you waiting for? 

 

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½