The White City by Grace Hitchcock Book Review

The White City by Grace Hitchcock
From back cover:
While attending the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Winnifred Wylde believes she witnessed a woman being kidnapped. She tries to convince her father, an inspector with the Chicago police, to look into reports of mysterious disappearances around the White City. Inspector Wylde tries to dismiss her claims as exaggeration of an overactive imagination, but he eventually concedes to letting her go undercover as secretary to the man in question—if she takes her pistol for protection and Jude Thorpe, a policeman, for bodyguard.

Will she be able to expose H. H. Holmes’s illicit activity, or will Winnifred become his next victim?

I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts and watch a lot of true crime shows, so I was super interested in this book when I came across it. If you know anything about true crime, you've probably heard the stories about H.H. Holmes and his murder castle.

I found this book to be interesting. I appreciated the fact that the author kept true to the actual facts surrounding H.H. Holmes as there is a lot of sensationalized information surrounding him. I thought the author did a great job of weaving a fictional tale in with actual facts. 

I thought the story rang true to what was known of Holmes at the time. I've seen other reviewers complaining that there wasn't enough murder/emphasis on the serial killer part of Holmes, but if you actually think about it, the general public really didn't know about Holmes's murders until after he was arrested. There were a few people who possibly knew but didn't say anything. And of course there was the disappearances and rumors of murder that were connected to him, but as far as his murdering, it wasn't really confirmed until after he was arrested.  

Simply put, Holmes was a con artist as he committed a lot of insurance fraud, so I liked that the story touched on that. 

I did find the romance to be a bit cheesy at times. Especially a good portion of the middle of the book where the plot dragged a bit. The characters were interesting enough to keep me engaged, even if I did roll my eyes a bit at the romance and move on.

And there really wasn't as much suspense as I would have hoped. I've read some other reviews where people said this book leaned more towards romance than suspense, and I would agree with that. 

So yes, personally I would have preferred more suspense and action, but considering this book is for a Christian market I think it's pretty good. I've read enough book reviews to see that some Christians will lose their minds over every little thing, so had this book included more murder, I don't know that it would have been as well received.

Overall I found this book to be well written with good characters and an interesting plot. I will be looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishers through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.