I enjoyed this book, although it took quite some time to
read.. A lot of research went into this book, so much detail. Gives a different 'look 'at Holmes. Not as much about the stories we often hear about him but more of the true character. A real con artist. ( )

Meticulously researched. Includes details comparisons of the newspaper accounts of Holmes' life of crime, details from court transcripts and analysis of the timelines involved. Makes me continue to question historical research that relies on newspapers.

Unfortunately, the copy I read was poorly edited and the typos were sometimes distracting. ( )

H.H. Holmes, born Herman Mudgett, did more than murder women in his “hotel” during the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. He was all about money and not shy about committing fraud to gain it. He had a number of alias’s, and he lied all the time. He was “married” to three women, but only legally married to the first, since he never divorced her. He eventually wrote a “confession” with more lies, as he confessed to killing people he couldn’t have. He was only convicted of murdering one person, Ben Pitezel, though it’s fairly certain, he also killed three of Ben’s children. There were a few women who worked for/with him in his “hotel” who were most likely murdered by him.

There is so much misinformation out there. Adam Selzer went to primary sources to write this book. Even many of those are not reliable, but Selzer does his best to sift through all the information and try to come up with the most plausible story of Holmes. It was good, and for enjoyment of/interest in the book, I’d actually give it 3.5 stars (good), but I really want to give it an overall of 4 stars for all the detailed research. I feel like this should be the primary book on Holmes, with all the research that went into it. Selzer also looks at other books/articles written about Holmes and looks deeper into where the information came from for those works to determine how legitimate the information is (including Eric Larson’s “The Devil in the White City”). Well worth the read for anyone interested in learning more about Holmes. ( )

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

This book was absolutely fascinating, and impeccably researched. I have read a lot of books on H.H. Holmes, and thought I knew all there was to know, but I was wrong--and I was glad to be proved wrong by Selzer's excellent tome.

What was particularly fascinating and impressive was how deftly Selzer disputed the myths and legends about Holmes that almost everyone (including myself) had taken for fact. Selzer has more than done his research, and this book provides a masterful overview of every aspect of the Holmes' tale. I highly recommend this book for true crime readers, and those who want to know the truth behind the tales. ( )

This does seem to be the best researched book of all the H. H. Holmes novels I’ve read. The author made a point to go back to original documents and sources where available to research for his own work.

It starts by revealing a little about his childhood as recorded by family and neighbors- then as he ages up, marries, and attends medical school- then continues through his ‘career’.

Going in to reading this book, I had already known much of what the author had to say about the dramatization behind the murders and the news reports making into a bigger hype than it really was, but there were still details that he was able to dig up that I hadn’t read about yet. I also can’t remember reading that much about his college years, either.

Why such a low star rating if the book is so good? It is in dire need of an editor! The book is very detailed, something I usually cherish in a book, but the details became so muddled at some point reading became very dry and heavy. Instead of reading a novel on a subject the author is passionate about, it was a research project he was ready to be done with. ( )