If, as I did, you thought that The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen didn't have enough about H. H. Holmes in it, Rick Geary's The Beast of Chicago will give you his life and crimes in graphic novel format.

The maps are helpful, as is the murder castle's plan for the second floor. There's a prologue about Chicago and the World's Fair of 1893. The prologue ends mentioning H. H. Holmes' place.

H. H. Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett in New Hampshire to a abusive drunkard father and a mother who couldn'r protect him and his siblings. Herman was a smart kid, but arrogant. He got married before he went to medical school. Herman started with insurance fraud schemes there. He managed to get his diploma, then settle his wife and their infant son before he went off. Two years later he was in Chicago, calling himself Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, physician and apothecary.

Before this account is over, Holmes has swindled, defrauded, murdered, and committed bigamy twice. I feel sorry for the wife, later widow, of the pharmacy that Holmes eventually bought out and, with the plot next to it, used to erect his 'murder castle'. I feel sorry for the workmen he cheated, and his many victims.

Holmes closed down his establishment when the World's Fair ended, and traveled with his second 'wife'. There was also the matter of his personal assistant, Pietzel's wife, and their five children. Don't get attached to the family. Sadly, Holmes was not arrested before he had managed to kill more than half the Pietzels.

Some pages are given to the investigation of the 'murder castle,' with most unpleasant details. We learn the eventual fates of Holmes and his building. The last page suggests that the site is haunted.

One piece of trivia not mentioned is that writer and editor William Anthony Parker White, whose best known pen name was 'Anthony Boucher' (where the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention gets its name), also used 'H. H. Holmes' as a pen name. He even wrote light verse under Holmes' real name, 'Herman W. Mudgett'.

This is a good, quick overview of a serial killer who, if he was not American's first, was certainly notorious. ( )

I prefer the more whimsical side of Mr. Geary's work. It was valuable in terms of understanding the people involved. I'm getting ready to read 'Timebound' so I thought it would be nice to have some of that information. ( )

In the mid- to late 1800s, one man known under various aliases committed many horrific criminal acts. This true crime book recounts his story.

This may be one of the most interesting books by comics creator Geary to date. While all of his books are good, this one was particularly compelling because I knew absolutely nothing about H.H. Holmes before reading this title. That the man was clever enough to get away with so many scams and murders before being caught is astounding. And that his name is not more well known with the general public is equally unusual.

Typically, I find Geary's illustrations to just sort of be "eh" in these books. While they don't hurt, they aren't usually necessary to understanding the plot the way illustrations often are in graphic novels. But here the drawings really struck me. There was a lot of emotion conveyed, which made the story strike even more of a chord of shock at the crimes and sympathy for the victims.

Highly recommended for fans of history, nonfiction comics, and/or true crime. ( )

A very chilling and macabre account of the Chicago murders of America's first serial killers. He killed more people than Jack the Ripper and thus deserves to be better known.

A very chilling and macabre account of the Chicago murders of America's first serial killers. He killed more people than Jack the Ripper and thus deserves to be better known.