Book Beginnings: The Devil in the White City

 Today I am linking up to Book Beginnings hosted by Rose City Reader where readers share the first sentence of the current book they are reading.





The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson begins with these words:  

"How easy it was to disappear: A thousand trains a day entered or left Chicago. Many of these trains brought single young women who had never even seen a city but now hope to make one of the biggest and toughest their home."



The reader can initially sense the mystery that is going to unravel with the use of the word "disappear" in the opening line. We sense that there was a sense of naivete at the time and that the city itself is going to be a main character.

About the Book (from Publishers Weekly): Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London, H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and exploited) the city's finest moment, the World's Fair of 1893. Larson's breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it.

Happy Reading,
Rebecca

The Witness by Dee Henderson

Book Description (from amazon.com)
     Police Chief Luke Granger's witness to a murder, Amy Griffin, has been on the run for years. Her family thinks she was murdered eight years ago, but Amy chose to accept a life in the shadows in order to protect her sisters' lives. Now unveiled secrets about their father have thrust the sisters into the public spotlight. The man who wants Amy dead now sees her sisters as the way to locate her. Luke and two of his homicide detectives are determined to stand in the way. They are each falling in love with a different sister, and it's become a personal mission to keep them safe. But chances are that at least one of them will fail, and facing the future will take a faith deeper than any of them currently knows.

My Thoughts:
     The Witness by Dee Henderson, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (2006), was the first book I have read by this author. Typically, this isn't the type of book I would select to read but it has a lot to offer readers of a variety of genres- mystery, thriller, romance, spiritual.
     The first half of the book sets the stage for the action-packed second half. While all of the main characters are likeable, I didn't feel that any of them were fully developed based on this novel alone.
     The Witness has an interesting plot and what initially appears to be two separate storylines becomes united as the novel progresses. Spoiler Alert: I generally do not require the quintessential happy ending in order to feel fulfilled by the ending of a book. However, the murder of one of the main characters in the last quarter of the book left me unsatisfied with the direction the author took the story.
     As I mentioned, Henderson has created very likeable characters in this novel and the death felt unnecessary to me. The author did a good job of keeping the reader guessing on which individual was responsible for all of the crimes.
     Henderson has clearly spent much time researching the various levels of law enforcement which is evident from the details she provides tot he reader in this story. The Witness proved to be an easy and exciting read.

About the Author: Dee Henderson is the author of fourteen best-selling novels including the acclaimed O'Malley series and the Uncommon Heroes series. As a leader in the inspirational romantic suspense category, her books have won or been nominated for several prestigious industry awards. She is a lifelong resident of Illinois.

Happy Reading,
Rebecca