Book Log 2008 #26: Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

Larson writes in the introduction to this book that it's not only about the connection between the murderer H. H. Crippen and the invention of wireless radio, but also a look at life during the Edwardian period. This statement signals, I think, the realization that the connection between crime and technology isn't as strong here as it was in The Devil in the White City. There, the Columbian Exposition and H. H. Holmes (aside - don't name your kid something with double Hs, it seems to up the odds of them becoming homicidal) grew together, with the grandeur of the former inversley translated into the horrors of the latter.

You don't get that in Thunderstruck. The connection is there - Crippen wouldn't have been apprehended so easily without wireless - but there's clearly not the same immediate connection between the two. Thus the pettifoggery about the book also being about the Edwardians, which is kind of disappointing as it doesn't feel like there's any special discussion of the era outside of the occasional remark about how Edward VII liked the theater and his cigars.

It's not a bad book per se, but I think it pales in comparison to The Devil in the White City, with which it can't help but be compared. Worth a read if you're interested in the period, but not something you'd need to seek out.