The White City by Grace Hitchcock – Review

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?

Though a fictionalized version of America’s first serial killer, The White City, engages readers in the city of Chicago during the 1893 World’s Fair, both the fair and Holmes’s hotel are brought to life on the pages as Winnifred Wylde goes undercover.

Winnie’s father is a police inspector and when she reports a kidnapping, it’s not the first crime she’s brought to him. While he seems to brush her off, he also knows his daughter’s tenacity and assigns his new detective to watch over her.

Grace Hitchcock spins a tale of suspicion without revealing the details (and not as graphically as many of the reports I read online did) until the very end. Amidst the mystery, there are two suitors, an aunt determined Winnie will marry well, beloved books, and a second mystery for Detective Jude Thorpe.

If the rest of this series is as enjoyable as Hitchcock’s introduction (and I should add here her debut novel), readers are in for a treat.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.