The Beast of Chicago

Starred review from October 13, 2003
In this graphic novel series, Geary covers some of history's most famous murders in meticulously researched, beautifully drawn volumes. This one takes on H.H. Holmes, one of America's first serial killers, whose "murder castle" shocked and stunned the era. It's 1886, and Holmes arrives in Chicago, a seemingly clean and enterprising young man but actually a murderous con artist with a spectacular ability to talk people into trusting him. Over the next five years, he spins an insanely complicated web of cons and evasions, as acquaintance after acquaintance disappears. He acquires three wives and numerous children—all unaware of each other—and his "boarding house" (aka the "murder castle") becomes a place where tourists check in but don't check out. This boarding house houses everything from a gas chamber to an abattoir for victims. Holmes's murder spree ends with an increasingly desperate flight from the law covering several states and involving the murders of three children. Geary renders all of this in a bouncy pen and ink style, the cheerfulness of which belies the horrid events, complete with maps, diagrams and charts to help readers follow the complex story. Despite its charming outward appearance, Geary's art has a chilling subtext that makes the story even more creepy. He's able to make everyday conversation as unsettling as the gruesome violence that figures prominently in every story. Geary is an underrated master of comics, and this book will equally interest history buffs, true crime enthusiasts and fans of good comics.

November 1, 2003
Adult/High School-Geary chronicles the man thought by some to be the world's first-known serial killer. Estimates on the number of men, women, and children murdered by the ghastly H. H. Holmes are as high as 200. In fin de si cle Chicago, he ran the cruelly efficient "Castle," a twisting maze of secret doors, airtight rooms, gas chambers, and ovens where he secretly dispatched his victims. He was also a con man and fraud, keeping several wives and families, and using any means of deception to further his many nefarious schemes. In a matter-of-fact style, Geary places the unequivocally evil Holmes against the promise then held by the city of Chicago, where the glow of electric lights from the World Exposition turned night into day. In the recounting of Holmes's ever-changing aliases, schemes, coconspirators, families, and victims, the inherent complexity of the tale reduces many of the episodes and characterizations to a blur. The black-and-white artwork is confident and compelling, and comparisons to Edward Gorey (in theme and style) are inevitable. Although it lacks Gorey's dark drollery, Geary's work is certainly stylish in its own right. This macabre tale is certainly not for the squeamish, but older readers who are fans of Gorey, murder mysteries, or true crime may enjoy it.-Douglas P. Davey, Guelph Public Library, Ontario, Canada

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2003
In this sixth and latest volume in his "Treasury of Victorian Murder" series, Geary turns his attention to H.H. Holmes, who gained infamy as America's first documented serial killer. The scene of most of Holmes's murders was a hotel and commercial building known as the Castle, which he built in the Chicago suburb of Englewood, IL, and outfitted with secret chutes and compartments, gas chambers, a safe in which victims were suffocated, a gruesome laboratory for dissection, and a crematorium. Around the time of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, as many as 50 people came to the Castle and were never seen again. Geary's exquisite black-and-white linework is reminiscent of period woodcuts, and his designs and page layouts are excellent. His figures show an echo of 1960s underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb. Geary eschews speculative reenactments of the murders for a straightforward retelling of the known facts. Like the other books in the series, this one is well researched and includes a bibliography for further reading. True-crime buffs will find this of interest, and the lack of sensationalism will help make the book palatable to other interested nonfiction GN readers. Recommended for most collections, for older teens and adults.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2003
Already well limned in prose by historic true-crime wiz Harold Schechter ("Depraved," 1994) and horror novelist Robert Bloch ("Dr. Holmes' Murder Castle" in "Crimes and Punishments "[BKL Ja 1 & 15 03]), the criminal career of H. H. Holmes (1861-95) is now actually limned by premier true-crime graphic novelist Geary. Physician and pharmacist Holmes took advantage of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to indulge his taste for unauthorized autopsies in a three-story monstrosity of his own design--part retail space, part hotel, part "laboratories"--a short ride away from the fair. Although it burned to the ground before his execution, Holmes' "castle" became his icon. As he did with the cramped Borden house in "The Borden Tragedy "(1997) and the railroad-station scene of President Garfield's assassination in "The Fatal Bullet" (1999), Geary offers a plan of its second floor (the "labs") as the book's icon, and relies not on gore but on the scrupulously drawn, strictly sidereal detail and the droll, telling expression to advance Holmes' story. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)