Thunderstruck

by Erik Larson

A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world’s “great hush.”

In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men—Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication—whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,” nearly commits the perfect murder.

With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate.

• ISBN10: 1400080665
• ISBN13: 9781400080663
• Publish Date: 24 October 2006 (first published 1 January 2006)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 480
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781400080663

Reviews

[Eve1972]

I LOVED Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, so was really looking forward to reading Thunderstuck and it did not disappoint! Mr. Larson just has such a wonderful way of combining stories and making them compelling to read. That being said, the two separate stories in Thunderstruck (Dr. Crippin/Marconi) did not meld as well as those in The Devil in the White City, so it was like reading two seperate stories that connected for the briefest moment at the end. Because of that I found Thunderstruck to be slightly less enjoyable on the whole, but still a very entertaining and if you are a fan, worth the read!