This time around in Thunderstruck, Larson tells the parallel stories of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, and Hawley Crippen, murderer. Marconi’s struggle to succeed in creating wireless telegraphy is intriguing, but also a little hard to warm up to because of the subject himself. Marconi was not a humble man, and kudos to Larson for not glossing over that fact. The parallel story of Crippen is also interesting in its own. It is an excellent picture of an ordinary, mild-mannered man driven to a rather heinous murder to be free and happy with the woman he loves. His story, to me, was the more interesting one, but then again, it could be because murder interests me more than scientific invention.
Larson’s attempt this time didn’t really grab me the way his other book did. I think it could be a number of things: Marconi was not a likable character, and neither were the other men who were competing with him to succeed with inventing successful wireless telegraphy. (I will say the intrigue that comes up with the German government was an interesting tidbit though.) Hawley Crippen was a mild man, beaten down by an irresponsible, slovenly, and careless wife. It was hard to have any respect for him either. In fact, his life sounded down-right horrible. The book really takes off once you get to the part when Crippen’s wife turns up missing and the police investigation begins. Then you can clearly see why Larson decided to integrate these two stories into one book. Marconi’s tenacious quest to create wireless telegraphy enabled the police’s hunt of Crippen and his mistress to cross the ocean, and kept journalists and readers appraised much like we are now while watching O.J. drive around in his white SUV.
Overall it was a decent book, but not quite up to the excellent The Devil in the White City.
Rating: 3 ½ Purrs for what this book could have been
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