Thunderstruck

Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson

Thunderstruck
List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $4.90
You Save: $21.05 (81%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Erik Larson
Edition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-10-24
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Crown

Book Reviews of Thunderstruck

Book Review: A delicious book
Summary: 4 Stars

I found Larson's Thunderstruck a delicious book and I gulped it in just three days. The book intertwists two stories, both non-fiction: Marconi's long and strenuous effort to build and deploy wireless technology and the famous and thrilling 'Northern London Murder' case. Well written and with a lot of historical details, the book is also well documented and has a rich reference list. Already knowing both stories from other sources and books, I noticed a couple of omissions: nothing is said about the journey Dr. Crippen made to Dieppe (France), soon after the murder of his wife, and no mention is made of the papers found in Crippen's pocket, at the time of his arrest, suggesting his intention to suicide. In my opinion both facts are important to understand the killer psychology. A curious oversight can be found at page 312; here Larson says that the Nobel prize was awarded to Guglielmo Marconi for the invention of wireless telegraphy and to the German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun "for inventing the cathode ray tube". To be correct the 1909 Nobel prize in physics was assigned to Marconi and Braun with the same motivation, i. e. "... in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".

Summary of Thunderstruck

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 crime.

With his superb narrative skills, Erik Larson guides these parallel narratives toward a relentlessly suspenseful meeting on 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. Thunderstruck presents a vibrant portrait of an era of s?ances, science, and fog, inhabited by inventors, magicians, and Scotland Yard detectives, all presided over by the amiable and fun-loving Edward VII as the world slid inevitably toward the first great war of the twentieth century. Gripping from the first page, and rich with fascinating detail about the time, the people, and the new inventions that connect and divide us, Thunderstruck is splendid narrative history from a master of the form.

London Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in London Books
The Ghost Map ImageThe Ghost Map
by Steven Johnson
Riverhead Hardcover; Published: 2006-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.14
Price in other shops: $26.95
The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution ImageThe Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution
by Deborah E. Harkness
Yale University Press; Published: 2008-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.96
Price in other shops: $18.00
Thames: The Biography ImageThames: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2008-11-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.20
Price in other shops: $40.00
Dilettanti: The Antic and the Antique in Eighteenth-Century England ImageDilettanti: The Antic and the Antique in Eighteenth-Century England
by Bruce Redford
Getty Publications; Published: 2008-08-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $33.71
Price in other shops: $49.99
Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum ImageDry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum
by Richard Fortey
Knopf; Published: 2008-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.66
Price in other shops: $27.50
The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times ImageThe Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
by Jennifer Worth
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2009-04-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.10
Price in other shops: $15.00
Slave: My True Story ImageSlave: My True Story
by Mende Nazer, Damien Lewis
PublicAffairs; Published: 2005-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.28
Price in other shops: $13.95
Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper -- Case Closed (Berkley True Crime) ImagePortrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper -- Case Closed (Berkley True Crime)
by Patricia Cornwell
Berkley; Published: 2003-10-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.25
Price in other shops: $9.99
London: The Biography ImageLondon: The Biography
by Peter Ackroyd
Anchor; Published: 2003-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.40
Price in other shops: $19.95
Thunderstruck ImageThunderstruck
by Erik Larson
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2007-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.54
Price in other shops: $14.95
Similar Books and other products
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ImageThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
The Dial Press; Published: 2008-07-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.39
Price in other shops: $22.00
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War ImageMayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-04-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops: $16.00
Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun ImageLethal Passage: The Story of a Gun
by Erik Larson
Vintage; Published: 1995-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $14.95
Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century ImageSatan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century
by Mike Dash
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2008-08-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.52
Price in other shops: $15.95
Loving Frank: A Novel ImageLoving Frank: A Novel
by Nancy Horan
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops: $14.00
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West ImageBlood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West
by Hampton Sides
Anchor; Published: 2007-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.75
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World ImageThe Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by Steven Johnson
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2007-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops: $15.00
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul ImageSin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
by Karen Abbott
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2008-06-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops: $15.00
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History ImageIsaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson
Vintage; Published: 2000-07-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Devil in the White City:  Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America ImageThe Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson
Vintage; Published: 2004-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.29
Price in other shops: $14.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories