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The Professor's Assassin (Short Story)
Matthew Pearl’s upcoming novel, The Technologists, is a stunning historical thriller based on the early days of America’s great institution of learning, MIT—and a depraved killer teaching Boston to fear its own shadow. In this original eBook short story, Pearl delves further into the turbulent world of nineteenth-century academia to re-create a shocking, real-life, and all-but-forgotten crime.
William Barton Rogers will one day become MIT’s founder and president. But in 1840 he is still a science professor at the University of Virginia. A tall and commanding intellectual, he epitomizes the strong and liberal ways of “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” a controversial experiment in progressive thought and laissez-faire governance. Then a startling event rocks the school to its foundation. Riots led by masked “volunteers” have begun roiling the campus, exploiting its attitude toward discipline. When one of his colleagues is brutally slain during the unrest, Rogers must become a man of both words and deeds to capture the killer—and keep an essential institution from collapsing around him.
Includes a preview of Matthew Pearl’s forthcoming novel, The Technologists, which Joseph Finder calls “the best yet from a true master of the historical thriller.”
William Barton Rogers will one day become MIT’s founder and president. But in 1840 he is still a science professor at the University of Virginia. A tall and commanding intellectual, he epitomizes the strong and liberal ways of “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” a controversial experiment in progressive thought and laissez-faire governance. Then a startling event rocks the school to its foundation. Riots led by masked “volunteers” have begun roiling the campus, exploiting its attitude toward discipline. When one of his colleagues is brutally slain during the unrest, Rogers must become a man of both words and deeds to capture the killer—and keep an essential institution from collapsing around him.
Includes a preview of Matthew Pearl’s forthcoming novel, The Technologists, which Joseph Finder calls “the best yet from a true master of the historical thriller.”
60 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
17 people are currently reading
1049 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Pearl
37 books1,416 followersNote from the author:Hi everyone. My newest novel is The Dante Chamber, out May 29, 2018. It's a follow-up to my debut novel, The Dante Club, but you do not have to read one before the other, each stands on its own two feet. Hope you'll enjoy any of books you choose to pick up.
Matthew Pearl's novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atavist Magazine, and Slate. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Matthew's books are part of "the growing genre of novel being written nowadays -- the learned, challenging kind that does not condescend." Globe and Mail declares him "a writer of rare talents," Library Journal calls Matthew "the reigning king of popular literary historical thrillers," and the New York Daily News raves "if the past is indeed a foreign country, Matthew Pearl has your passport." Matthew has been chosen Best Author for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and received the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction.
In addition to Goodreads, you can keep in touch and learn more at my website, www.matthewpearl.com, and:
Twitter: @matthewpearl
Facebook: fb.me/matthewpearlauthor
Instagram: matthewpearlauthor
Matthew Pearl's novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers translated into more than 30 languages. His nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Atavist Magazine, and Slate. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Matthew's books are part of "the growing genre of novel being written nowadays -- the learned, challenging kind that does not condescend." Globe and Mail declares him "a writer of rare talents," Library Journal calls Matthew "the reigning king of popular literary historical thrillers," and the New York Daily News raves "if the past is indeed a foreign country, Matthew Pearl has your passport." Matthew has been chosen Best Author for Boston Magazine's Best of Boston and received the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction.
In addition to Goodreads, you can keep in touch and learn more at my website, www.matthewpearl.com, and:
Twitter: @matthewpearl
Facebook: fb.me/matthewpearlauthor
Instagram: matthewpearlauthor
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
February 21, 2012
The Professor's Assassin by Matthew Pearl is a prequel short story to his new novel, The Technologists.
The main character of The Professor's Assassin is not the assassin. It's the man who finds him. Which is an excellent thing, because William Barton Rogers is a much more fascinating character.
Rogers is a professor of the practical sciences. At the still relatively young University of Virginia, he is the professor of practical science.
In 1840, the University of Virginia was plagued by student protests and campus riots. The more hotheaded among the student body were violently petitioning for the right to bear arms on campus.
The violence escalated to frenzies of drunken rock-throwing at faculty housing. Of course, the rioters were always masked and hooded before they started drinking and beating on the walls of the houses with clubs, so no one could be identified in the morning.
One night, Rogers decided he'd had enough. He went out to confront the rioters. He confronted the leader face to face. Or face to mask. The young man threatened Rogers repeatedly, asking him how he dared to challenge the "University Volunteers". Rogers walked away, daring the man to shoot him in the back, not certain that he wouldn't, scared that the young man would and knowing, certain that if he wavered in the assuredness of his strike for one instant, the man would bring him down.
The next morning the President of the University was found shot outside of his home. Although President Davis knows who shot him, he refuses to name his assailant. A few days later he dies of his wound.
Rogers is a man of science. He also feels compelled to find justice for his friend and colleague.
As Rogers works through the case he feels he must solve, and the reasons why he must solve it, he finds himself dealing with the differences between his own practical methods, and the more philosophical minds of his peers.
It is as he works through his solution for this case that the germ of the idea for MIT is born.
Escape Rating B: This was a good introduction for The Technologists, and the story holds up on its own merits. The notes in the back are a must-read, because they explain how the author used the documentation of the real case to build the story. The story is closely based on a historic event. Davis was assassinated, and he did refuse to name his killer. A good bit of the rest is storyteller's license, but Pearl used that license well.
The main character of The Professor's Assassin is not the assassin. It's the man who finds him. Which is an excellent thing, because William Barton Rogers is a much more fascinating character.
Rogers is a professor of the practical sciences. At the still relatively young University of Virginia, he is the professor of practical science.
In 1840, the University of Virginia was plagued by student protests and campus riots. The more hotheaded among the student body were violently petitioning for the right to bear arms on campus.
The violence escalated to frenzies of drunken rock-throwing at faculty housing. Of course, the rioters were always masked and hooded before they started drinking and beating on the walls of the houses with clubs, so no one could be identified in the morning.
One night, Rogers decided he'd had enough. He went out to confront the rioters. He confronted the leader face to face. Or face to mask. The young man threatened Rogers repeatedly, asking him how he dared to challenge the "University Volunteers". Rogers walked away, daring the man to shoot him in the back, not certain that he wouldn't, scared that the young man would and knowing, certain that if he wavered in the assuredness of his strike for one instant, the man would bring him down.
The next morning the President of the University was found shot outside of his home. Although President Davis knows who shot him, he refuses to name his assailant. A few days later he dies of his wound.
Rogers is a man of science. He also feels compelled to find justice for his friend and colleague.
As Rogers works through the case he feels he must solve, and the reasons why he must solve it, he finds himself dealing with the differences between his own practical methods, and the more philosophical minds of his peers.
It is as he works through his solution for this case that the germ of the idea for MIT is born.
Escape Rating B: This was a good introduction for The Technologists, and the story holds up on its own merits. The notes in the back are a must-read, because they explain how the author used the documentation of the real case to build the story. The story is closely based on a historic event. Davis was assassinated, and he did refuse to name his killer. A good bit of the rest is storyteller's license, but Pearl used that license well.
December 11, 2011
This short story or novella is a prequel to Pearl's forthcoming novel The Technologists which is coming out in Feb 2012. Pearl is known for writing engaging historical mysteries. I've been a fan since his Dante Club came out in 2003.
The Professor's Assassin is based on true events that occurred at the University of Virginia in 1840, just twenty-one years after Jefferson founded it. Tensions are heating up over slavery and some students are rioting, demanding the right to carry arms into the classroom. John Davis, a professor, is shot one evening after the riots had seemingly tapered off for the day. He later dies from his wound.
William Barton Rogers is a young science professor at UVA who can't let Davis's murder go unpunished even though Davis himself knew his assailant but refused to name him. Rogers seeks not revenge, but to bring the murderer to justice in order to "consider the interest of society in the punishment of the lawbreaker" (Chp 7, page 2). A young slave who was committed to Davis suddenly goes missing as does the lead suspect. With the aid of a sophomore student and some of the riotous student leaders, Rogers sets out to solve the mystery.
Over all I enjoyed the story, but it didn't really take off for me until the half-way point. I am, however, used to reading novels that have more time to set the stage and draw the reading into the time period. This is the first digital short story that I've paid to download and it was completely worth the 99 cents.
It has certainly whetted my appetite for The Technologists. If the name William Barton Rogers rings a bell, it's because he's the guy who founded MIT in 1861. The Technologists revolves around the first graduating class of MIT.
The Professor's Assassin is based on true events that occurred at the University of Virginia in 1840, just twenty-one years after Jefferson founded it. Tensions are heating up over slavery and some students are rioting, demanding the right to carry arms into the classroom. John Davis, a professor, is shot one evening after the riots had seemingly tapered off for the day. He later dies from his wound.
William Barton Rogers is a young science professor at UVA who can't let Davis's murder go unpunished even though Davis himself knew his assailant but refused to name him. Rogers seeks not revenge, but to bring the murderer to justice in order to "consider the interest of society in the punishment of the lawbreaker" (Chp 7, page 2). A young slave who was committed to Davis suddenly goes missing as does the lead suspect. With the aid of a sophomore student and some of the riotous student leaders, Rogers sets out to solve the mystery.
Over all I enjoyed the story, but it didn't really take off for me until the half-way point. I am, however, used to reading novels that have more time to set the stage and draw the reading into the time period. This is the first digital short story that I've paid to download and it was completely worth the 99 cents.
It has certainly whetted my appetite for The Technologists. If the name William Barton Rogers rings a bell, it's because he's the guy who founded MIT in 1861. The Technologists revolves around the first graduating class of MIT.
January 7, 2012
Short novella is a prelude to his upcoming novel The Technologists. Modeled after the true events in 1940 at the University of Virginia, when the President of the University was shot by a member of the University Volunteers, who had been protesting on the campus. This author has such a fantastic way of portraying time and place. One feels that they are actually back at the University and part of history in the making. Can't wait for his novel to be released in February.
January 20, 2012
A novella that introduces some of the characters in the author's forthcoming novel, THE TECHNOLOGISTS, due in February. Based on an actual incident at the University of Virginia in 1840.
A group of students, masked, are rioting on campus for the right to bear arms at all times. A professor named Davis is shot by one of them and refuses to identify his assailant before he dies.
It's left up to William Barton Rogers, future founder of M.I.T., to ferret out the culprit. He's aided by a young student who suspects the culprit because he lent his pistol to him. The student was seen by a slave, Jack, of the late professor just before the shot fired.
It's not enough proof.
Rogers comes up with a plan to bring him into the open.
Liked this one.
A group of students, masked, are rioting on campus for the right to bear arms at all times. A professor named Davis is shot by one of them and refuses to identify his assailant before he dies.
It's left up to William Barton Rogers, future founder of M.I.T., to ferret out the culprit. He's aided by a young student who suspects the culprit because he lent his pistol to him. The student was seen by a slave, Jack, of the late professor just before the shot fired.
It's not enough proof.
Rogers comes up with a plan to bring him into the open.
Liked this one.
December 29, 2011
In The Professor's Assassin, Matthew Pearl brings another historical event to life through his telling of the murder of Professor John Davis at the University of Virginia in November 1840. Much of the story is dedicated to Professor William Rogers' pursuit of the killer.
This is a short story and is the prequel to Pearl's upcoming book, The Technologists, which is scheduled for release in Feburary 2012. William Rogers is the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which explains partially the connection between the books.
If you enjoy historical fiction with an element of mystery, you will enjoy The Professor's Assassin.
This is a short story and is the prequel to Pearl's upcoming book, The Technologists, which is scheduled for release in Feburary 2012. William Rogers is the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which explains partially the connection between the books.
If you enjoy historical fiction with an element of mystery, you will enjoy The Professor's Assassin.
January 7, 2012
I enjoyed this story not so much because it was gripping or a great mystery (as it was based on fact), but because it offered a nice introduction to the character, Professor Rogers, who will play a big role in Matthew Pearl's upcoming novel, The Technologists.
I also enjoyed reading about The University in it's infancy as my sister is a graduate of that fine institution. And I am familiar with the area from the many hikes, camping and backpacking trips I have taken there.
Looking forward to The Technologists, which takes place at my Father's alma mater, M.I.T.
I also enjoyed reading about The University in it's infancy as my sister is a graduate of that fine institution. And I am familiar with the area from the many hikes, camping and backpacking trips I have taken there.
Looking forward to The Technologists, which takes place at my Father's alma mater, M.I.T.
January 13, 2012
Can't wait for The Technologists to come out in February. This was a great lead-in!
February 10, 2012
The founder of M.I.T. plays detective while serving at Virginia Univ.
May 28, 2018
This book was great! Every story I've ever read set in Boston always makes SUCH a big deal about Harvard. Harvard this, Harvard that, park your damned car on the Harvard yard, etc., etc. Meanwhile, over on the Charles is where the real action is. Blackjack playing card counters, VW dismantling/mantling seniors, and some real wild fighting robots are all under that domed roofed institution. This was a great history lesson on how the school came to be, the challenges the administration had to go through to be recognized because of that 'H' school up the road, and how engineering evolved as a legitimate course of study in higher education. Pearl does a nice job laying out an interesting mystery, builds the characters well (even those FEMALE characters! Horrors! - please note sarcasm) and takes you through the evolution of a great school. Makes me wish I'd spent more time paying attention in science and math in high school. Well worth the read.
January 30, 2021
3 stars.
I think that this story could have benefitted from being longer. The answer to the story's main question is unraveled far too quickly, and the ending feels abrupt. However, given that this is based on a historical event, I also don't feel it could have been longer.
I enjoyed the characters in this story a lot. Harrison infuriated me (in a believable way), and Jack was my favorite.
I am looking forward to diving into the longer story — The Technologists — that this one serves as a prequel for.
I think that this story could have benefitted from being longer. The answer to the story's main question is unraveled far too quickly, and the ending feels abrupt. However, given that this is based on a historical event, I also don't feel it could have been longer.
I enjoyed the characters in this story a lot. Harrison infuriated me (in a believable way), and Jack was my favorite.
I am looking forward to diving into the longer story — The Technologists — that this one serves as a prequel for.
February 8, 2024
I have to say up front that I admire anyone who writes historical fiction since they not only have to do a good job crafting the story, but the research must be strong enough to make for a credible result. I found the story here just okay and the historical elements, particularly the attitudes toward race, seemed a bit far-fetched. I don't know much about the protagonist William Rogers and I know that the spectrum of racial perspectives was broader than we generally think in the nineteenth century. However, it didn't ring true for even an non-slaveholder to consider the life of an African American child in the same way he would a white child. It just seemed unlikely that Rogers would have effectively risen so far above the norms of his time in such a fundamental way. Like so much historic fiction, this smacked of applying twenty-first century norms and attitudes to a nineteenth century situation and it just seemed forced and false.
January 12, 2019
I'm usually a big fan of Pearl, this this one I found a tad boring. Perhaps because I know what he's capable of, and would have liked this more as a full novel rather than a short.
It does have a murder, the man who wants justice, and the hippie that thinks forgiveness is divine. Like most of his work, this is a historical fiction. It's entertaining, I just prefer his full length detailed works better.
It does have a murder, the man who wants justice, and the hippie that thinks forgiveness is divine. Like most of his work, this is a historical fiction. It's entertaining, I just prefer his full length detailed works better.
May 20, 2025
This was a novella, so fairly short. It serves as a prequel to The Technologists about the early history of MIT. This one is set at the University of Virginia, shortly before the civil war, when a series of riots culminated in the death of one of the professors. Professor William Rogers -- later to be the founder of MIT -- serves as a sort of detective, working to figure out who shot the professor and, ultimately, to track him down. The bones of the story are based on real life events.
February 14, 2017
Decently told, but just so...convenient. He hates geology but runs off to a place where he and the professor have both been observing rock formations? Several days' horse ride away, no less. Just way too convenient.
March 26, 2025
A short prequel story to The Technologists which sets up the character of the MIT founder we meet in it...
January 23, 2012
Let me start with this - Matthew Pearl is flat out an amazing author. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of his work. I was hooked with "The Dante Club" and have followed his career joyously over the years with "The Poe Shadow" and "The Last Dickens". So it was with great anticipation that I checked out his website recently to see what he was working on next - and to my delight, "The Technologists" is almost ready to be published. Woohoo! I pre-ordered it instantly.
More to my immediate delight, I discovered Pearl was not bringing his latest novel to market cold but rather had written several smaller companion pieces with which to whet our collective appetite for the book's arrival by introducing concepts, characters, settings and time period. What a treat! On his website, available for immediate download are a couple of PDF short stories and a link to the Kindle version of "The Professor's Assassin" a novella (or long short story.)
It's a downright clever strategy to be sure and I jumped in with energy and passion. I devoured the two short stories, "Close Ranks" and "Tech Forever" ravenously. Containing characters involved in prequel stories to "The Technologists", they each greatly stoked the fire for more! So I Kindled that fire with "The Professor's Assassin" as well. I was not to be disappointed.
"The Professor's Assassin" is a fictionalized (though not sensationalized) account of real events - which is somewhat a Pearl trademark. He is renowned for taking historic and literary characters and forging beautifully written tales of mystery around their lives. While not non-fiction, they have each been based so carefully on detailed research that a certain reality and gravity accompany every word! In this case, he fictionalizes a real-life murder of a professor at the University of Virginia.
In the course of Pearl's version of the tale, we are introduced to professor William Barton Rogers who will play a role in "The Technologists" as the founder of MIT. In "The Professor's Assassin", Rogers takes a lead role in the investigation of a colleague's assassination by a student radical. Like all of Matthew Pearl's work, "The Professor's Assassin" is a mesmerizing read. No one writing today - in this writer's opinion - writes with such an assured mastery of intellect, literary perspective and sheer creative plotting. The characterizations are rich and varied, the subplotting wise and studied, and the setting and time period imbued with such linguistic accuracy and nuance that we as faithful readers are rewarded upon every page. There is plenty of drama to hold us and the suspense chills us even as we discover along with Rogers the true nature of the crime.
That Pearl can create a universe that is uniquely his own from the shards of our own history is a treasure to behold. I am absolutely thrilled to read his every word and eagerly look forward to more of the same with "The Technologists."
And beyond!
More to my immediate delight, I discovered Pearl was not bringing his latest novel to market cold but rather had written several smaller companion pieces with which to whet our collective appetite for the book's arrival by introducing concepts, characters, settings and time period. What a treat! On his website, available for immediate download are a couple of PDF short stories and a link to the Kindle version of "The Professor's Assassin" a novella (or long short story.)
It's a downright clever strategy to be sure and I jumped in with energy and passion. I devoured the two short stories, "Close Ranks" and "Tech Forever" ravenously. Containing characters involved in prequel stories to "The Technologists", they each greatly stoked the fire for more! So I Kindled that fire with "The Professor's Assassin" as well. I was not to be disappointed.
"The Professor's Assassin" is a fictionalized (though not sensationalized) account of real events - which is somewhat a Pearl trademark. He is renowned for taking historic and literary characters and forging beautifully written tales of mystery around their lives. While not non-fiction, they have each been based so carefully on detailed research that a certain reality and gravity accompany every word! In this case, he fictionalizes a real-life murder of a professor at the University of Virginia.
In the course of Pearl's version of the tale, we are introduced to professor William Barton Rogers who will play a role in "The Technologists" as the founder of MIT. In "The Professor's Assassin", Rogers takes a lead role in the investigation of a colleague's assassination by a student radical. Like all of Matthew Pearl's work, "The Professor's Assassin" is a mesmerizing read. No one writing today - in this writer's opinion - writes with such an assured mastery of intellect, literary perspective and sheer creative plotting. The characterizations are rich and varied, the subplotting wise and studied, and the setting and time period imbued with such linguistic accuracy and nuance that we as faithful readers are rewarded upon every page. There is plenty of drama to hold us and the suspense chills us even as we discover along with Rogers the true nature of the crime.
That Pearl can create a universe that is uniquely his own from the shards of our own history is a treasure to behold. I am absolutely thrilled to read his every word and eagerly look forward to more of the same with "The Technologists."
And beyond!
February 7, 2012
The Professor’s Assassin by Matthew Pearl is a prequel to his latest novel The Technologists. The regular reader of Pearl will know that he does not disappoint the reader looking for an engaging historical fiction novel. His short story about a professor who is determined to find out the identity of a murderer at the University of Virginia and bring him to justice is no exception. Pearl’s talent for tantalizing the reader with thrilling tales shines through once again. William Barton Rogers (later to be the founder and president of MIT) is the science professor at the University of Virginia and is startled to discover that the riots of campus “volunteers” have turned deadly. Rogers is the first to want justice when one of his colleague’s is slain in the street at the hand of a student and volunteer. With his prodigious knowledge of the area and the help of other students Rogers goes on the hunt for the person responsible so he cannot kill again.
Pearl, as in his novels, creates a character in Rogers that makes the reader want to follow him into the darkest alley to find out who has committed the crime and bring that man to justice. From the first page we, the reader, are captured and cannot leave until the thrilling end.
The short story is riveting and leaves the reader wanting more. The short story also includes sample chapters from Pearl’s upcoming novel, The Technologists, which if the sample is any indication of the rest of the novel is going to be phenomenal. Trust me readers of historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers… you will not be disappointed with The Professor’s Assassin.
Novel Moments:
“William Barton Roger’s eyes tracked the bursts of light in the darkness outside. The other men in the room kept away from the window, as though there was somewhere to hide.” (Kindle Location 33-36).
“Jack would not be so limited forever. Nor would Rogers. More choices would come-they must.” (Kindle Location 944-49)
Pearl, as in his novels, creates a character in Rogers that makes the reader want to follow him into the darkest alley to find out who has committed the crime and bring that man to justice. From the first page we, the reader, are captured and cannot leave until the thrilling end.
The short story is riveting and leaves the reader wanting more. The short story also includes sample chapters from Pearl’s upcoming novel, The Technologists, which if the sample is any indication of the rest of the novel is going to be phenomenal. Trust me readers of historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers… you will not be disappointed with The Professor’s Assassin.
Novel Moments:
“William Barton Roger’s eyes tracked the bursts of light in the darkness outside. The other men in the room kept away from the window, as though there was somewhere to hide.” (Kindle Location 33-36).
“Jack would not be so limited forever. Nor would Rogers. More choices would come-they must.” (Kindle Location 944-49)
March 17, 2012
This novella which sets up Pearl's novel "The Technologies" is a great read! I enjoy how seamlessly Pearl weaves together his historic fiction and creates characters and scenarios that are both appealing and believable.
This particular story takes place at the University of Virginia in the 1840's. It was a fascinating introduction to how the early colleges functioned in our country. I enjoy how Pearl introduces concepts into history which you may not have though of before. For example, this short story deals with the question of student's carrying firearms, the type of people who had access to higher education, and the use of slave labor in a university setting. Although I had thought of these things as part of the time period, this book challenged me to place them together and examine them as they were truly lived.
The added adventure of mystery makes this book a winner for me.
This particular story takes place at the University of Virginia in the 1840's. It was a fascinating introduction to how the early colleges functioned in our country. I enjoy how Pearl introduces concepts into history which you may not have though of before. For example, this short story deals with the question of student's carrying firearms, the type of people who had access to higher education, and the use of slave labor in a university setting. Although I had thought of these things as part of the time period, this book challenged me to place them together and examine them as they were truly lived.
The added adventure of mystery makes this book a winner for me.
May 28, 2012
I picked this up to see if I liked Pearl's writing style before I committed to something longer (like The Dante Club or The Technologists).
I'm still not sure.
The author failed to really make me "feel" the period (important in historical fiction), and the characters were a bit superficial. That may be a feature of it being a novella, not a novel, but I fear not. The story line itself wasn't really engaging enough to make me care--I suspect if I didn't have a "completer obsession" I wouldn't have finished it. And I'm not sure I'll give one of the full-length novels a look, either.
I'm still not sure.
The author failed to really make me "feel" the period (important in historical fiction), and the characters were a bit superficial. That may be a feature of it being a novella, not a novel, but I fear not. The story line itself wasn't really engaging enough to make me care--I suspect if I didn't have a "completer obsession" I wouldn't have finished it. And I'm not sure I'll give one of the full-length novels a look, either.
September 20, 2012
Just a short story, but Mathew Pearl is soooo good. His tongue-in-cheekiness plays perfectly into the true story of a murder on the campus of an 1840's University of Virginia. He introduces us to William Barton Rogers, who would one day become the founder of MIT but in this story is a regular Sherlock Holmes. I love Mathew Pearl, he is always spot-on and pitch-perfect, with his language, tone, atmosphere.... he just really knows how to tell a compelling story without out treating his audience like they are unintelligent.
June 7, 2013
When I started this book I did not realize it was based on a true story. The riots over having guns on campus was such a current topic. It is an easy read, very straight forward. Professor Rogers is sort of an oddball on campus as he is the only hard scientist on the staff. Without his insistence and perseverance the murder would have gone unsolved. This book shows that the more things change the more they stay the same.
August 11, 2016
I would have quite happily read this as a full novel. I really enjoyed the Technologists and was so ex cited to learn that there was a standalone story about one of my favorite characters. It dealt with some harsh subject matter - he was a professor at a Southern university on the cusp of the Civil War - but not in a way that felt he like skirted it or played up to it. It did feel a little truncated in bits but I'm certain that's because of it being a short story rather than a novel.
December 21, 2012
For the language alone, I will continue to read everything Matthew Pearl ever writes. He brings this period of time alive in such a natural way you think you can walk out your door and experience it.
This is a prequel to his novel "The Technologists", both of which use actual historical events in link with fabulous fiction.
Love him. Period.
This is a prequel to his novel "The Technologists", both of which use actual historical events in link with fabulous fiction.
Love him. Period.
February 27, 2012
This was a fun read. It is short and acts as a good lead into the Technologists (coming soon to a library near me). I wonder if it was developed as the prologue for that book and then pulled aside for money making, lip whetting, purposes. I could see it being paired easily with the forthcoming book, from what I know of it.
October 1, 2016
I'm bosting this up to 4 stars, though I'm' thinking 3 1/2. I really liked the story , but expected a snappier ending. I didn't realize this was based on a true story, so unless you're writing speculative fiction it's a little hard to snappy up an ending. That said,it's very well written with good character studies, and I d like to read Pearl's full length novels.
August 30, 2012
This short novella/prequel is intriguing and definitely whets my appetite for The Technologists! As a modern Virginian, it's fascinating; as an educator, as a history buff. At times it felt rushed and somewhat unresolved, but I have hope that the novel will resolve that.
December 23, 2011
A short story intended as an introduction to the wonderful book, The Technologists. It has the same flavor, a thriller set in the academic life of the mid-nineteenth century, but it is much more supeficial, as you would expcet of a short story. Enjoyable enough, but the novel is MUCH better!
February 27, 2012
Reasonable. Reasonable enough to keep Pearl's The Technologists on the reading list. It wasn't a life changing book by any means, but it was pretty good. I figure I'll like The Technologists more due to the setting.
March 31, 2013
Fun prequel novella to The Technologists.
March 23, 2012
This is an ok story. It is based on the real murder of a University of Virginia professor. Overall the story seemed somewhat contrived to introduce us to a character in the authors upcoming novel.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews