This book is great if you live or know a lot about Chicago. Much of it details particular city streets or corners where crimes took place. It also involves a lot of court room details for each particular crime listed in the book. I for one, do not know anything about Chicago and I’m not that interested in the court room drama of a crime. My interests lay more in knowing nitty gritty details about the crime itself and the person/s committing the crime. There is also a lot of names to keep track of for each crime in the book. All in all, it’s a lot of information to take in for this book. Also, much, if not all of the crimes take part between 1880 to 1940s. So it includes no crimes from present day. There was only one chapter in the book that peaked my interest, and that was the crimes that were inspiration for the broadway play, Chicago. Overall, I don’t think this was a bad book. Just you have to have a particular interest in early 20th century crimes and court room details.

I would caution against reading this book if you’re planning on reading any long-form books about the crimes (mostly murders) contained within its pages as the long-form books will have many more details and Second City Sinners might ruin the ending with spoilers.
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Relatedly, though I loved the pictures included in the book—it’s cool to see photographs of the people mentioned—the captions often contained information that spoiled the ending of the story, which I REALLY didn’t like. My e-copy also had a number of formatting problems. I’m sure this was fixed in later e-publications but it was incredibly distracting.
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I enjoyed learning more about my current city but I think I would have liked reading a full true crime book about any/all of the crimes discussed more. The short stories give you all the necessary information, but there really wasn’t much suspense. I like the suspense in my true crime reads.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, but when I went to open it, I had a totally different one sent to me but with the cover still titled “Second City Sinners”. The one that I had was titled “Why We Long to Be Wild and Free”. I still did not read that book for it did seem interesting to me.

I really enjoyed this book but I have one caveat, this really should be read I physical form. There are so many pictures and the formatting for ebooks is just not great. I understand that I had an uncorrected copy but it was so hard to follow.

I liked it enough to purchase the physical copy and it really made a difference. I enjoyed all the photos and old clippings from the newspapers. If you like crime and history and Chicago than this is a book for you.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I’m giving this a 3.5

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by the publisher in return of my unbiased opinion/review.

Chicago has always been close to my heart having been lived there for almost 16 years so any chance I get to explore Chicago either through books or taking a stroll through the city is always thrilling. The title of this book intrigued me and hence I decided to read this book. Chicago is known for many things its chilly winters, deep dish pizza but first and foremost its crime. This book focus on the criminal history of Chicago through its criminals. The author has done a wonderful job by piecing together crime stories chronologically using newspaper archives of one of the most prominent newspaper of the time. The stories flow nicely and full of interesting details that is sure to keep the reader glued.
Overall, I really recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history of Chicago.

ARC from Net Galley

I find the truth better than fiction these days, it is it a sign of my age or just the lack of talent out there?

Anyway Jon Seidel does a great job of unearthing new gems of history from the city of big shoulders and even bigger egos.

This will not make you a bears fan but will remind of the story history (of crime anyway) in what we call "Second City"

This was a very interesting collection of stories about past crime in Chicago. I was surprised at the crimes, the persons involved in many of the accounts. And-- how it seems that the present time is really no worse than in the past.

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting learning more about Chicago's history. While I have heard of much of these before it was fun to learn more about them and also hear about some new stories that I want to learn more about!

I thought I knew everything about Capone and the Chicago mobsters. I learned so many things and was completely entralled by the style of writing. Captivating, informative, highly recommended to any true crime junkie.

This was an interesting read about forces confessions. Although a tad bit biased, the author did a good job of telling the story with the facts and minimal opinion thrown in.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC copy of the book. The opinions expressed above are my own.

I was excited to read Second City Sinners. The Mobi file I received had that name, but the content was from another book (Why We Long to be Wild and Free by Nate Summers). So, I have no idea of Second City Sinners is any good, but I wasn’t impressed with that chapter I read of the other book.

Couldn't get interested, and I can't tell if it's because the book is uninteresting or I just lost the mood. Either way, didn't finish.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

It might be bad but I have been fascinated by Al Capone for a long time. I really find him an interesting character.

This book emcompasses Capone and so many others. Chicago has been laden with crime that have fascinated the general public over the years and this book adds to the fascination.

I thought this book was really well written and kept my interest. Many I have heard of but some I have not. Being a fan of John Douglas (FBI Profiler) this one fits right in to the same caliber.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Chicago Crime History Lesson 101.

Jon Seidel did a fantastic job on doing his research upon putting this book together, creating a piece of what was and what is now in the present time.

I learned so much from this book that I didn't know, it's A very informative book, and I highly recommend to any True Crime fanatic.

Rating 4

Second City Sinners is a interesting and informative book on Chicago's crime. The author has done a lot of research and has written a good book.

I really enjoyed learning about Chicago's crime, it was a interesting read that was well researched and written. I had a good time reading this and learned a little bit too.