Search - Thunderstruck

There are some writers that are just good writers. This may not be quite as compelling as 'Devil in the White City', but it doesn't really matter. Erik Larson is just a good storyteller. He gives all sorts of details around someone's life or invention that are just fascinating. He makes the person and that person's time in history come alive. So I liked Thunderstruck very much...and 'Isaac's Storm'...and 'Devil in the White City'. I feel this way about David McCullough also. He makes the person, the event, the time of the story come alive.

I have been a fan of Erik Larson ever since I read Devil In The White City. Larson has a talent for making historical nonfiction read like a good mystery novel. While Thunderstruck did not disappoint, it is not on the same level as Devil.

I believe that the key to enjoying Larson's books is knowing what you're getting into. Both Devil and Thunderstruck involve two seemingly unrelated storylines, woven together to form some intersecting and intertwining conclusion. Larson gets you to that conclusion through meticulous research and a lot of detail. I did not find this book boring, but readers who do not like to trudge through pages of technical explanation and minute detail might disagree with me.

In other words, people who really enjoyed Devil might not necessarily enjoy this book. While Devil was a seriel killer murder mystery wrapped up in the glamour of the Chicago World's Fair, Thunderstruck is more of a slow march towards a single domestic murder wrapped up in the technological baby steps in the development of wireless communication. By nature, the subject matter of Thunderstruck will be less appealing to a wider audience.

With that said, I still enjoyed this book (even though I liked Devil better.) You can only do so much with the subject matter available to work with, and I think Larson pulled off Thunderstruck with good success. I think this book is certainly worth reading, but it's not a book that everyone would enjoy.

Interesting history and I like Larson's method of having two parallel stories.