- Hardcover: 594 pages
- Publisher: Random House of Canada Ltd (5 May 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 067697984X
- ISBN-13: 978-0676979848
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
Stone's Fall
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stone’s Fall is another novel to add lustre to a career that has had few missteps – and it is a book that shows no signs the author’s skill is waning. Iain Pears’ writing won’t be to everyone’s taste, but isn't that true of anything of quality? This is historical crime of an intelligent order, with a wide, time-spanning canvas that moves from London in the Edwardian era to Paris and Venice.
In 1909, a rich manufacturer of weapons has purloined the concept of the torpedo from another man, one of the reasons for his fabulous wealth. But he falls to his death from a window, and his widow, the Countess Elizabeth, commissions a journalist to investigate her late husband’s life and death – with the mystifying will he left as the fulcrum. As the journalist, Braddock, digs deeper, he uncovers very little -- and fifty year pass before a remarkable revelation comes his way.
A glance at Iain Pears’ earlier novels such as An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Portrait reveals the customary impeccable craftsmanship, on display once again in the new book. With his admirable skill at matching clever plotting with strikingly drawn characters, Pears is clearly a different commodity from his contemporaries (a conclusion also demonstrated by the beguiling The Dream of Scipio, set in Provence at three key points of Western civilisation). What is most encouraging about the critical and (to some degree) the commercial success of Iain Pears’ books is the encouraging signal it sends about readers’ willingness to engage with fiction that demands more than just easy acquiescence. A novel such as Stone’s Fall will not reveal its secrets to you without a certain commitment – which is why the author is something special in a dumbed-down, Big Brother-watching world. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Review
'fireworks, inventiveness and excitement of part three and a curmudgeonly inventor of torpedoes' --Evening Standard
`it is his interest in the peculiar effects that money has on human beings that makes him a good novelist.'
--Daily Telegraph --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
`it is his interest in the peculiar effects that money has on human beings that makes him a good novelist.'
--Daily Telegraph --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favourite book of 2009!,
By
This review is from: Stone's Fall (Hardcover)
Let me start by saying that this is my favourite book of 2009 so far - I was completely unprepared for how much I would love this book.
The premise is quite simple: Why did John Stone die, falling out of a window at his London home? The story is a complex mystery, beginning in London in 1909 and gradually revealing the truth by going back in time - first to Paris in 1890, and finally to Venice in 1867. The book is cleverly constructed so that in the first section John Stone has just died and all the information about him is vague and contradictory. In the second section he becomes a character, so we begin to build a better picture of him and in the final section he is the narrator, so we finally find out the truth about his fascinating life. "I did not want power or wealth for themselves, and did not in the slightest desire fame. But I wanted, on my death, to be able to expire feeling that my existence had made the world a different place." This is a literary mystery, so the pace is quite slow and at nearly 600 pages it isn't a quick read, but the length was necessary to create the vivid world and fully formed characters. The astonishing twists were reminiscent of Fingersmith and I am sure I will remember this book for a very long time. The espionage and financial aspects of the book meant that I thought it would appeal to men more than women, but while I think this is probably true, I am a woman and it is my book of the year! I admit that there were a few sections where the financial implications of events went over my head, but I was quickly brought back to the gripping plot by another development. This book has everything - a multi-layered complex plot, fantastic characters and a compelling mystery. Highly recommended to lovers of suspenseful literary fiction.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Masterly machinations,
By
This review is from: Stone's Fall (Hardcover)
`The church of St Germain des Pres, at the start of what was supposed to be spring, was a miserable place, made worse by the drabness of a city still in a state of shock, worse still by the little coffin in front of the altar which was my reason for being there, worse again by the aches and pains of my body as I kneeled'.
The novel starts in 1953 and then has three separate but intertwining narratives in reverse chronological order - headed London 1909, Paris 1890 and Venice 1867. Each has its own narrator - the first is the most conventional and probably the weakest. The second is fascinating and where Pears really excels himself, the third section gives resolution. It's an incredibly well plotted novel, I was gripped by the story from the start and the twists and turns are rooted in what we have learnt about the characters rather than being mere plot devices. It is only at the end of the third part that all becomes clear and is resolved with a final twist- if a little too neatly for this reader. Pears has great fun with the financial and business strands within the novel - which examines the increasing power of finance and capital markets and how `the flow of capital and the generation of profit depends upon confidence. The belief that the word of a London banker is his bond'. He is obviously drawing parallels with our own time and greedy bankers and how disaster can loom when confidence is lost in credit markets. Pears is able to build suspense over these financial machinations, a new type of espionage, a fascinating lady and the fall of an immensely wealthy and quietly powerful magnate - 596 pages flew by.
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A veritable literary feast,
By
This review is from: Stone's Fall (Hardcover)
I expected great things from this novel and I was not at all disappointed. This book offered a marvellous portrayal of the development of Victorian industry and the evolution of espionage techniques, with an insight into international banking mechanisms. Yet despite all this potential worthiness the novel also manages to race along at a cracking pace.
Though rather different in style to "The Dream of Scipio" (Pears's vastly under-rated masterpiece) this did match its predecessor's feel for history, with three different narratives each stamping their individual authority on the reader's attention. Though a lengthy tome, weighing in at about six hundred small font pages, there is none of the feeling of long-windedness that occasionally burdened "An Instance of the Fingerpost". "Stone's Fall" was the sixtieth book I have read this year, and I think it is possibly the finest so far (with the possible exception of Jospeh O'Neill's marvellous "Netherland")
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