OK, Lovelyish Book Club! By now you should have completely finished Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. So whatdya think?! Let’s talk about Part IV and discuss after the cut!
- Part IV starts with a new character — a detective in Philadelphia trying to figure out what exactly Holmes is up to after he is charged with faking a man’s death for insurance money. Faking a death? Hm, that doesn’t sound like Holmes!
- Uh oh, there were three kids traveling with Holmes — where are they now? The detective’s journey across cities retracing Holmes’ steps is kind of nervewracking!
- Holmes, back in prison in Philadelphia during the search, continues to manipulate people with letters! And starts writing a memoir. And is completely insane.
- In Toronto, sadly, the detective finds two of the children dead. Apparently Holmes constructed a gas chamber out of a trunk. But what about the third kid?
- The last child’s body is found in Indianapolis by the detective. Holmes continues to deny any murder, even while Chicago police discover what he did in his ‘hotel’ during the World’s Fair.
- Holmes publishes his memoir, and also goes to trial in several cities for murder.
- His “hotel” burns down, mysteriously, and all further evidence of his despicable murders is lost.
- In the epilogue, Larson details what happened to all the key people of the World’s Fair in the ensuing years.
- Holmes goes to trial in Philadelphia, admits that he killed many, many people and is sentenced to death.
- I was super creeped out when reading about all the weird things that happened to people in connection with Holmes, after he died. Like the District Attorney who died in a fire — and the only thing that survived was a photo of Holmes. AHHHHH.
- And we’re back to the beginning, where Burnham is wondering what happened on the Titanic. His old friend Millet has died. Burnham dies a month and a half later.
What did you think of the novel, Lovelies? Did you enjoy it? Did anyone actually finish it? Thanks for reading along with me here. Au revoir, LBC!
daisy / 506 posts
So sad it’s over!
orchid / 176 posts
@beca - when’re you gonna read the book?! hahaha
guest
omg i haven’t read that book since high school. i think i’m going to reread it
hydrangea / 90 posts
This book was SO great that I even went on to read about the author’s choices of sources in writing this unique fiction-like nonfiction. It turns out he spent a great deal of time in the University of Washington library, which is in my hometown of beautiful Seattle and where my boyfriend graduated from. He raved about what a great library it is and it made me proud to live in Seattle
The ending chapters on Holmes were super weird for me because they really just highlighted how we will NEVER completely understand the mind of a serial killer. It seemed like while he knew he was a monster, he didn’t own up to so many of the murders.. probably just because he took pleasure in messing with everyone’s heads and wanted to remain an enigma of sorts.
This book was historically fascinating and enlightening. Can’t wait to get started on the next one. What book is next?
peony / 3 posts
I just finished this book. I wasn’t caught up with you all, so I didn’t post on any other of the book club posts; I didn’t want to find any spoilers (like that maybe Holmes was a killer or something…). I have to admit, I didn’t love this book. The psychology of serial killing is so macabre that in a weird way it interests me. I ended up skimming most of the sections about the worlds fair. There were too many random characters there that I didn’t connect with or care much about. I realize this is non-fiction, so all of those characters had to be included, it just didn’t interest me. I also feel like it gave too many details on the world fair and not enough in the Holmes chapters. I am. however, intrigued to see if there are any Erik Larson books I’d like more than this one as I think it was mainly the subject matter (or half of it) that I didn’t care for. Thanks for the recommendation! I hope you keep doing a Lovelyish book club! What’s the next book in the list?