Sin in the Second City Want to write a bestseller? Just dig up the dirt on a Chicago long forgotten, or so it seems based on the success of Karen Abbott’s “Sin in the Second City,” following on the heels of Erik Larson’s smash “The Devil in the White City.” Not that Abbott doesn’t deserve it: the tale of the sisters who ran the world’s most luxurious brothel in the den of iniquity known as Chicago’s Levee District is endlessly fascinating, and Abbott artfully ramps up the conflict by alternating in the story of the evangelical crusaders who eventually shut the neighborhood down. Thanks to exhaustive research and a carefully honed imagination, Abbott brings the mysterious Everleigh sisters back to life.
