A true tale of love, murder, and the finish of the world’s “great hush.”

In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men-Hawley Crippen, an extremely unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural method of communication-whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.

Occur Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those about Thunderstruck years when great delivery companies competed to create the biggest, quickest ocean liners; scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed; as well as the wealthy outdid one another with ostentatious shows of wealth. Against this history, Marconi races against incredible chances and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a best catalyst for the introduction of the globe we know today. In the meantime, Crippen, “the kindest of males,” nearly commits an ideal murder.

With his unparalleled narrative skills, Erik Larson guides us through a relentlessly suspenseful chase over the waters from the North Atlantic. On the way, he tells of a unfortunate and tragic romance that was defined on leading pages of papers around the world, a main inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic towards the killer and his fan, and a powered and compelling inventor who changed the way we communicate.