An excellent read, but with a lot of violent content.
Plot
The Devil in the White City is the story of the planning and creation of the 1893 Colombian World's Fair in Chicago, and a serial killer who lived in the city at that time. The chapters alternate between the main architect responsible for the fair and the killer, telling their separate stories on the similar background of the World's Fair.
Morality
As a factual account of real events, all the players are represented as they are, full of faults. Most of the architects are fairly upright, and any transgressions they commit are understood to be immoral. The murderer is described as being without conscience, and a psychopath, and no actions of his are condoned in any way.
Spiritual Content
There is very little mention of spirituality except as it plays into the politics of the time and the peculiar circumstances surrounding the serial killer. Christianity is the accepted standard for most people, but religion itself is largely a non-issue in the narrative.
After the murderer's execution there are a number of unexplained deaths linked to his case that some believe correlate to demon possession, or some form of supernatural influence. In his confession, the killer states that he was possessed by the devil, and was therefore not responsible for his actions.
Violence
As one of the main characters is a killer, there is a large amount of the violence. There are a number of fights mentioned, and there exists a club that glorifies violence. The mayor is shot and killed by a seemingly random person who turns himself in. The shooting is described obliquely, and is not traumatic. In a comparison of the book's killer to the famous Jack the Ripper, the author describes the brutal and graphic murders committed by the unidentified Englishman. The murderer followed in the book typically killed through poison or asphyxiation. He sometimes later dissected them, considering himself a man of science. There are three children killed whose bodies are later found, and the description of them is graphic.
Drug and Alcohol Content
Many men drink, and often quite heavily. A mayoral candidate is know for his penchant for alcohol and cigars. The smoking of cigars is also frequent. The author implies that one man may be under the effect of opium.
Sexual Content
There are exotic dancers in some parts of the fair, and descriptions of belly dancing occasionally appear. There are allusions to brothels in the city, and that massively indecent acts occurred there, but nothing specific is described. Buffalo Bill Cody appears in the story, and is said to be quite unfaithful to his wife. A photographer is represented as a womanizer and his attempt to seduce a particular woman is mentioned, as well as the fact that he later cheated on her. The serial killer is assumed to have slept with several of the women that he later murders, and is at one point married to three living women at once. At the end of the book one formerly famous dancer is mentioned to have danced naked at a particular party.
On a brighter note, the author makes a point to highlight the main architect's fidelity.
Crude or Profane Language or Content
Words like d**n and h**l appear infrequently in quotes from historical figures.
Conclusion
The book is extremely well written, presenting the facts of history with the flair of a fiction writer. The tale of the constructing of the fair is quite interesting, as a number of engineering innovations were made especially for the fair, including the Ferris Wheel. The story of the killer is provocative, and written with enough suspense to keep you reading. However, as an accurate depiction of historical events in detail, this is not a story for children.
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