The Technologists: Matthew Pearl

A city held to ransom. A brave few determined to fight. A race against time.
Spring 1868, and the population of Boston is being terrorised by a series of mysterious 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. The city's fate relies on four young students: Civil War veteran Marcus Mansfield, brash Bob Richards, meticulous Edwin Hoyt and the eccentric but brilliant Ellen Swallow. 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.