1350. Audiobook. Commentary. 11/01/21.

Published: Nov. 1, 2021, 6:45 p.m.

b'"Thunderstruck," by Erik Larson. ("A\\xa0true story of love, murder, and the end of the world\\u2019s \\u201cgreat hush.\\u201d\\n\\nIn Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men\\u2014Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication\\u2014whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.\\n\\nSet 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, \\u201cthe kindest of men,\\u201d nearly commits the perfect murder.\\n\\nWith his\\xa0unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase\\xa0over 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.") For Educational Purposes Only.'