Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Erik LarsonEdition: 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.
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