On the one hand, the smog stuff is FASCINATING, and the overlap with government response to covid is striking. That's not explicitly in the book, obviously, since this was published 3 years before the pandemic, but I kept finding myself going, jfc, this is just ALWAYS how things are handled, isn't it? 

On the other hand, there is really no reason for the serial killer narrative in here except that I'm guessing the publisher was like, listen, people only read history if it looks like an Erik Larson book.