I liked The Fall of the Kings, but more in a "so that's what they were talking about way than a "that's wicked cool" way. Kinda like the Silmarillion, actually. The Privilege of the Sword, on the other hand, rocked hardcore. I can't wait till my daughter's old enough to read it.

The last book I read and loved was The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril

I was kind of eh on The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril but I can't not recommend it. I also have a hardcover copy of it free to a good home, if anyone wants it.

It took me some time to get into it. I'm very rusty on my Cthulu mythos but after the plot got rolling I was hooked the rest of the way through.

Did anyone here read The Devil in the White City ? (I know there was a time when every other person in Chicago was reading it, but I don't know whether that applies elsewhere.)

I read about half of it. I'm not into True Crime stories at all, and I was honestly hoping for more on the White City and less on the Devil.

That was more or less my issue. The serial killer bit - eh, whatever. Kind of remarkable that that particular case didn't seem to make it into the public consciousness like his contemporaries Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, even in Chicago, but other than that? Boring.

The architecture and the city planning and the politics were unexpectedly fascinating. I wanted more as well, plus I read it over Thanksgiving, and I was really frustrated not having wikipedia at the ready. And as Chicago history goes in particular, it's amazing. Most of the reviews I've seen seemed to be coming from the opposite perspective though, which was puzzling.

I didn't feel that he really tied the two elements together in any but the most superficial ways. Disappointing.

I didn't feel that he really tied the two elements together in any but the most superficial ways.

That was my problem. There was the Columbian Exposition. There was a serial killer. They happened at the same time! I do read true crime, in limited doses, and the true crime story was badly told. You know there's something amiss when the choice of an architectural design is much more compelling than a murderer.

It was a long slow slog but I read it. I gather that the Columbian Exposition and events leading up to it provided him with more victims.

Yeah, there was that. And he touched on social changes going on that meant there were a lot of young women flocking to the city in a way that hadn't been typical before...touched repeatedly on it, but without ever really going any further than that. (And in fact, he kind of contradicts his own point on that, because it was by and large the families of these young women who drove the investigation.)

So...eh. It's frustrating because I felt like he was almost on to something, but not quite there.

OTOH, a book about architects and Chicago history on its own wouldn't have gotten nearly the play sans serial killer, so I guess that's a plus in its own way.