Book 48: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl
Book 48: The Technologists.
Author: Matthew Pearl, 2012.
Genre: Historical Fiction. Techno-Thriller.
Other Details: Hardback. 480 pages.
Spring 1868, and the population of Boston is being terrorised by technological attacks: first a magnetic storm causes ships in the harbour to collide in flames, then in another bizarre catastrophe every piece of glass in the financial district spontaneously melts - clocks, windows, eyeglasses. Nothing in nature can do this: these are man-made disasters. Someone has unleashed the destructive potential of science on an innocent population.
The city's fate relies on four young students of the recently founded Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Marcus Mansfield, a Civil War veteran determined to repay MIT's founder for taking a chance on him, brash Bob Richards, meticulous Edwin Hoyt and the eccentric but brilliant Ellen Swallow, the first woman at MIT, who experiments secretly in a basement laboratory. Together, they are The Technologists. In a climate of rising hysteria, these four courageous individuals must unite against the forces of darkness to uncover the mastermind before he can stage his greatest outrage. - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
Matthew Pearl brings together a number of historical figures with fictional characters in a thriller set in post-Civil War Boston featuring the early years of MIT. Of those characters listed in the synopsis above Richards, Hoyt, and Swallow did attend MIT that year. While Marcus Mansfield is fictional he was, according to Pearl, inspired by a some real-life students as was Chauncy Hammond, Jr., known as Hammie. He is a friend to the others though not part of the core group seeking to solve the mystery. There are also other students of MIT and Harvard, professors and many others. It was the kind of novel where I found it useful to make a note of who was who when they were first introduced
While the man-made disasters are fictional, Pearl explains in his author's notes that the technology to produce them did exist, something that surprised me. I was also surprised that I spotted the mastermind behind the disasters quite early on though I was uncertain until the final reveal thanks to some well placed misdirection.
As with other of his works, Pearl inserts into the text snippets of the writings of Richards and others and his extensive research into all aspects of the novel's premise was impressive. It's certainly not an all-action type of thriller but quite cerebral and fairly slow paced as befits its 19th Century period setting. However, things do get quite tense in places and the climax was nail-biting. I certainly enjoyed the novel.