Thunderstruck: A true story of love, murder, and the end of the world's 'great hush', by Erik Larson (HC, 2006, $4)
This is another of my favorite books. This time Guglielmo Marconi is the inventive genius, and Hawley Crippin the murderer.
Marconi had just invented a way to send messages long distances through the air. This sounded like magic to any scientist who knew anything about physics. Luckily Marconi didn't.
Crippin's wife, Belle, had gone to America. She went so suddenly that she left behind most of her clothing and jewelry. Because of Belle's desertion, Crippin could get a divorce and marry his typist, Ethel. Soon Ethel is wearing Belle's jewels and clothes in public, people are talking, and Scotland Yard is investigating. Strangely, Crippin decides to go to America. He wants Ethel to go with him, dressed as a boy. Seemingly, Ethel does not find this strange.
Meanwhile, the Montrose, a passenger ship, is getting ready to sail. She is small, and old, and doesn't even carry any first class passengers. She doesn't even carry many second class passengers, only 246 third class passengers and one Marconi operator with his wireless set.
Scotland Yard finds the buried remains of a body in Crippin's cellar. Was it Belle? Was Cripppen the murderer? Why would Crippen murder his wife, and how even could he have done it? Crippen was short, thin, and seemingly a gentle, loving man.
All this was so strange. The British public are horrified. The British public eagerly await more news. Where is Crippen? Is he the murderer? How had he managed it? Would Scotland Yard find him?
The Montrose's captain, who has read the British newspapers, notices a man and his son who act nothing like a father and son usually do. Are these the fugitives everyone is looking for? What should he do?
Eventually he wires his suspicions to both England and America. Now everyone in both continents is waiting for the Montrose to get to Quebec where the identities of the two strange passengers can be checked. Yet the two passengers know nothing of this. How could they ever guess that a message has been able to reach a place so far ahead of them?
If you want to know how this all turns out, then read this book, to be found on the new non-fiction table. (L-gen.nf)
