Make that 4.5 stars. This is a satisfying book of suspense and drama permeating the laboratories of the future of post Civil War Massachusetts. Ellen Swallow is special. Follow her to the end. ( )

Boston, 1868. El Instituto de Tecnología de Massachusetts se ha adjudicado la misión de utilizar la ciencia en beneficio de todos. Sin embargo, cuando los instrumentos de navegación de los buques se descontrolan inexplicablemente, una implacable sombra se cierne sobre el MIT. Armados de ingenio y de su extraordinaria formación científica, los mejores estudiantes de la primera promoción del Instituto, Marcus Mansfield, un discreto veterano de guerra de gran talento; el irreprimible Robert Richards; Edwin Hoyt, el genio de la clase, y la recién llegada y brillante Ellen Swallow, formarán una sociedad secreta para salvar vidas inocentes e investigar la verdad.

Another solid work from Matthew Pearl. ( )

I usually will truck through and finish a book, no matter how bad it is, but I'm three chapters in and I already think this is stupid, so I'm done. I think The Dante Club was just a broken-clock-right-twice-a-day thing, because nothing Pearl has written since then has managed to grab me. ( )

Very real sense of 1868 Boston; particularly fun for the MIT affiliated to get a sense of the realities behind the names they have been hearing for years. ( )