By JANET MASLIN
Published: February 10, 2003

THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
By Erik Larson
Illustrated. 447 pages. Crown Publishers. $25.95.

As part of his research for ''The Devil in the White City'' Erik Larson visited the part
of Graceland cemetery where members of Chicago's turn-of-the-century elite are enshrined.
As he puts it, ''On a crystalline fall day you can almost hear the tinkle of fine
crystal, the rustle of silk and wool, almost smell the expensive cigars.''

Mr. Larson likes to embroider the past that way. So he relentlessly fuses history and
entertainment to give this nonfiction book the dramatic effect of a novel, complete with
abundant cross-cutting and foreshadowing. Ordinarily these might be alarming tactics, but
in the case of this material they do the trick. Mr. Larson has written a dynamic,
enveloping book filled with haunting, closely annotated information. And it doesn't hurt......

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Title: The Devil In The White City
Approximate Word Count: 766
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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