Today's Bleat discusses a book I read a few months ago called "Devil in the White City." It's a fascinating book about serial killer H. H. Holmes and the creation of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The author had to have put in about a million hours of research about the period, the murders, and the incredible logistics involved with building the World's Fair in the first place. It really pays off.



My favorite reads are those that offer what I call a painless education. A good example in novel form is "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr, a best seller from a few years ago. It's got some graphic violence, but if you can stomach it, the history of forensics, psychiatry, and legal issues such as the McNaughten Rule are all outlined in detail while not distracting from an absorbing plot. (I haven't found his subsequent novels as good, though, because they don't seem to be quite as well researched).