Erik Larson ruined a lot of things for me. Mostly, he ruined my ability to enjoy a standard history book. Once you've read about H.H. Holmes building a literal "Murder Castle" against the backdrop of the 1893 World’s Fair, a dry textbook just doesn't cut it anymore. It’s that specific itch, right? You want the meticulous research of a scholar but the pacing of a thriller. You want to feel the soot of the Gilded Age on your fingers.
Finding books like Devil in the White City is surprisingly hard because most authors lean too far into one camp. They’re either too academic—which is a polite way of saying boring—or they’re too "true crime," focusing on the gore without the atmospheric historical context that made Larson’s work feel so heavy and significant.
Honestly, the magic isn't just in the serial killer. It's in the juxtaposition. It’s the soaring white buildings of the "Dream City" standing right next to the darkest impulses of the human psyche.
The Narrative Nonfiction Problem
We call this genre narrative nonfiction or "creative nonfiction," but those terms feel a bit clinical. Basically, these are books that refuse to acknowledge the line between a novel and a history log.
If you’re looking for that same vibe, you have to look for authors who treat archives like a film set. They don’t just tell you a date; they tell you what the wind felt like on that date. Larson spent years digging through blueprints and old letters to reconstruct the World’s Fair. To find something comparable, we have to look for that same level of obsession.
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
This is the obvious successor. If you haven’t read it yet, stop reading this and go buy it. David Grann is arguably the only person working today who can match Larson’s ability to weave a complex web of conspiracy and atmosphere.
It’s the 1920s. The Osage Nation in Oklahoma becomes the richest people per capita in the world after oil is discovered under their land. Then, they start dying. One by one. It’s a systemic, cold-blooded "Reign of Terror" that eventually leads to the birth of the FBI. Grann doesn’t just focus on the murders; he focuses on the institutional rot that allowed them to happen. It’s infuriating and gripping. You’ll find yourself googling the photos of Mollie Burkhart and J. Edgar Hoover just to make sure this actually happened. It did.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Maybe the serial killer aspect isn't what you're after. Maybe it's the vibe.
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Savannah, Georgia, in Berendt’s hands, feels just as eerie and labyrinthine as Holmes’s hotel. This book is technically about a shooting in a grand mansion, but it’s really about the eccentric, gothic underbelly of a city that feels stuck in time. You’ve got drag queens, voodoo practitioners, and high-society aristocrats all swirling around a central mystery. It’s slower than Larson, sure, but the prose is so thick you could almost chew it. It’s a masterclass in "place as a character," which is exactly what the Chicago World’s Fair was in Devil.
When Science and Crime Collide
Larson loved the contrast between progress and destruction. One of the best books like Devil in the White City that captures this specific tension is The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum.
Set in Jazz Age New York, Blum follows the birth of forensic medicine. Back then, you could basically get away with murder if you used the right chemical. The coroners were corrupt, the police were baffled, and "poison" was a wide-open field. The book tracks Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler as they try to turn the tide. It’s structured as a series of short mysteries, each centered on a different element—cyanide, arsenic, carbon monoxide. It’s gruesome, nerdy, and deeply satisfying.
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
This one is a gut punch. It’s the story of the Donner Party, but told with such visceral, terrifying detail that it feels like a horror movie.
Brown focuses on Sarah Graves, a young woman who was part of that ill-fated trek. While there’s no "villain" in the human sense like H.H. Holmes, the villain is the environment and the desperate, deteriorating psychology of the group. The research is staggering. Brown explains exactly what happens to the human body during starvation in a way that makes you want to go stock your pantry immediately. It captures that "impending doom" feeling that Larson perfected.
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Why We’re Obsessed with the Gilded Age
There’s something about the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Everything was changing. Electricity, skyscrapers, global travel—it was all new. And because it was new, there were no rules.
That lack of rules is what allowed men like Holmes to thrive. If you want to dig deeper into that specific era, Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard is essential reading. It covers the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Now, I know what you’re thinking: "An 1880s political assassination sounds dry."
It’s not.
Millard focuses on the fact that Garfield probably would have survived the bullet if his doctors hadn’t been so arrogant and unhygienic. They literally poked around his wound with unwashed fingers, ignoring the burgeoning science of antisepsis. It’s a story of a brilliant man, a madman (Charles Guiteau), and the tragic intersection of medicine and ego. It feels very "Larson-esque" because the stakes are huge and the tragedy feels avoidable.
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
This is a bit of a curveball, but hear me out. If what you liked about Devil in the White City was the exploration of a dark subculture living right under the nose of "polite society," Krakauer is your man.
He weaves the history of the Mormon church with a modern-day (well, 1980s) double murder committed by fundamentalist brothers who claimed they were talking to God. It’s an investigation into how extreme faith can morph into something violent. It has that same haunting, "how could this happen here?" quality.
The Gritty Details: What to Look for Next
When you're hunting for your next read, don't just look at the "True Crime" shelf. That’s a trap. Most true crime is written like a police report. You want the stuff that’s filed under "History," but has a blurb from a thriller writer on the back.
Look for these hallmarks:
- Multiple Narratives: Larson almost always has two or three storylines that converge. Look for books that don't just follow one person.
- Micro-histories: Books that take a tiny slice of time (like a summer or a single event) and blow it up to show the whole world.
- The "Anti-Hero": A book is always better when the "villain" is genuinely intelligent or the "hero" is deeply flawed.
Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Larson’s other work. The Splendid and the Vile is great, but Isaac’s Storm is the closest in spirit to Devil. It’s about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. It’s about man’s hubris—the belief that we could predict and control the weather—colliding with the most powerful storm in American history. The descriptions of the water rising are genuinely nightmare-inducing.
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Actionable Next Steps for the Narrative History Fan
If you're ready to dive back into a 400-page historical rabbit hole, don't just pick a random title. Do a little "vibe check" first.
- Check the Sources: Flip to the back of the book. If the bibliography is less than twenty pages, the author might be "filling in the gaps" with too much fiction. The best books in this genre are built on a mountain of real documents.
- Listen to a Sample: Because these books rely so much on tone, listen to the first five minutes of the audiobook. If the prose feels clunky or overly dramatic, it’ll get old fast.
- Start with "The Big Three": If you haven't read Killers of the Flower Moon, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, or The Poisoner's Handbook, start there. They are the gold standard for a reason.
- Follow the Authors, Not the Subject: Authors like David Grann, Candice Millard, and Patrick Radden Keefe (Empire of Pain) are consistent. Even if the subject matter doesn't immediately grab you, their storytelling will.
The reality is that books like Devil in the White City are rare because they require a specific type of obsessive author. You're looking for someone who is part detective, part historian, and part novelist. When you find that combination, stick with that author. They’ll usually take you somewhere fascinating, whether it’s a muddy street in 1890s Chicago or a billionaire’s boardroom in the 21st century.