Shadows in the White City
Robert W. Walker
Harper, April 2007, $6.99, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0060739967

At the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, the Phantom of the Fair has killed seven people, one of them an unborn child, by garrote and then setting fire to them. Inspector Alastair Ransom has hack driver Waldo Denton arrested for the crimes. While he is recovering from a gunshot wound, his nemesis, police chief Nathan Kohler, releases the man due to a lack of evidence. When Alastair learns of this he is livid and shadows Denton, trying to prove his guilt. He finally neutralizes Denton but he has little time to rest up on his laurels.

A new predator is stalking Chicago and the media has dubbed him Leather Apron because that was what witnesses saw him wearing. This butcher saws the person when he is still alive and cuts out the organs and the fleshy part of the body. This has been going on for some time but when Senator Chapman's granddaughter is one of the victims, the police become involved. The senator offers Alastair, Koehler and a physician heavily in debt a fortune if they find the killer and bring him to the senator for some good old vigilante justice. Alastair is repulsed by the idea but and has no idea who the killer is but the groups of street children lead him to a horrifying and undeniable truth. Now all he has to do is locate the killer and figure out what to do with him.

Robert W. Walker writes great historical mysteries that are compelling, complex and full of interesting historical data that brings the late 1800's to life for the reader. His protagonist is a product of his times and his actions should be viewed in that light though readers use twenty-first century historiographic perspective. In some ways this police procedural is a cerebral mystery because Alistair has to gather clues from frightened homeless children and a madwoman who has an interest in the killer. SHADOW IN THE WHITE CITY is a must read to fans of historical mysteries.

Harriet Klausner