Thunderstruck

Guglielmo Marconi pursues wireless telegraphy through experiments, commercial rivalry and public scepticism, working to transmit signals across distances previously thought impossible. His developing system gradually connects ships and shore stations around the North Atlantic. In a parallel narrative, London doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen lives unhappily with his wife, music-hall performer Belle Elmore, while beginning a relationship with his secretary Ethel Le Neve.

After Elmore disappears in 1910 and human remains are found beneath Crippen’s home, Crippen and Le Neve flee aboard the SS Montrose in disguise. The ship’s captain recognises them and uses Marconi wireless to alert Scotland Yard, allowing Chief Inspector Walter Dew to cross the Atlantic on a faster vessel and arrest the pair in Canada. Larson brings the histories together to show how a celebrated murder investigation demonstrated the practical power of a communications technology that was changing policing, shipping and modern life.