Stone's Fall

A Novel

By: Iain Pears

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice, John Lee, Simon Vance

Length: 24 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A return to the form that launched Iain Pears onto bestseller lists around the world: a vast historical mystery, marvelous in its ambition and ingenius in its complexity.

In his most dazzling novel since the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and arms dealer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents.

A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stone’s Fall is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home.

Chronologically, it moves backwards–from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890, and finally to Venice in 1867– and in the process the quest to uncover the truth plays out against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe’s first great age of espionage, and the start of the twentieth century’s arms race.

Like Fingerpost, Stone’s Fall is an intricately plotted and richly satisfying puzzle–an erudite work of history and fiction that feels utterly true and oddly timely–and marks the triumphant return of one of the world’s great storytellers.

©2009 Spiegel & Grau (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“When I read Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost years ago, I thought it was so brilliantly plotted, so compulsively entertaining, so utterly engrossing that I gave it to my father and said, 'This is the new Dickens.' Stone's Fall is better.”—Malcolm Gladwell

“Mr. Pears’s assured command of period history, language, lore, and attitudes is formidable.”–The Wall Street Journal

Iain Pears-Always more than you bargained for.

Still catching my breath after finishing Stone's Fall last night. Pears' prose flows in fine style loaded with fascinating settings, characters and situations. Placed amidst the economic, military/industrial turmoil of Europe before World War I, the novelist's flights of fiction arise from a historical foundation with aspects readers in 2009 may recognize as quite contemporary.
Listening to the excellent actors who recorded this book is a treat. I hope someone will record The Dream of Scipio, Iain Pears' masterpiece novel of western civilization and ethical challenges.

complex, interesting, suspenseful

I read "An Instance of the Fingerpost" and "The Dream of Scipio" a few years ago, and remember loving this writer's prose, character development and the way he sets a historical scene. "Stone's Fall" never disappoints; it is a suspenseful interwoven story of generations of family, historic and governmental betrayal, love and finance. Wow! A great listen.

A great find!

Thank you customer reviewers! A great book from start to finish. The first book I might listen to again. I have recommended this book to five friends, a first for me. Easily worth the 2 credits. I only wish the last narrator of the book (there are three) was used for the entire book.

Dull, Duller, Dullest

Three distinct interconnected stories, each with a different narrator. Sound quality very good, narration is good, but considering the upper-tier quality of the narrators selected, particularly John Lee whom I love, there are some big annoying misses in the accents. All 3 narrators came up with eastern European accents sounding like George Hamilton in Love at First Bite, the Italian was not even Ronzoni quality. Don't ask about the southern drawl. OK picky I guess, but still with these 3 should be much better. That said the writing seemed to be good quality with a decent amount of character and environmental development - but the story itself I found simply dull. The first 1/3 of the book initial story was interesting enough as you get a grip on what is going on, the second part drifts around and the third part slows to a dry crawl. As an aside, I work in business, so long stretches of business and banking themes [like 1/2 the book] just don't provide me with the escapism I'm looking for. Very much like a Masterpiece Theater mini-series that you get caught up in but don't really care if you catch the last episodes or not. I half expected Hercule Poirot to show up or discover that Colonel Mustard did it with the candlestick. Seriously, very Agatha Christie like where all the characters are involved and everything gets tied up in a neat bow at the end. And the end...pleeaase. I can't decide if the author thought up the shock ending at the beginning of the writing process and built a book around it or if he was boring himself with the dull third part and decided hey, why not write this crazy thing to finish it off. OK, enough said, go ahead and spend the credit and you will probably not be disappointed, but when you're slogging through big segments of nothing think of me.

Three favorite narrators, one great story!

Stone's Fall is a well developed story, told in unique style, allowing the reader to 'peel the onion' of the plot with each new narrator. Roy Dotrice, John Lee, and Simon Vance make it all come to life and the result allowed me to get lost in the story, so much so, that I was loathed to have it end. Wonderful audiobook!

Must listen!!!

Put it on your to hear list. Elegant, well thought out, worth the time completely.

Great ending

The story was well read by all. At times, I found it dull and slow but the ending was so fantastic that it made me want to start at the beginning and read it all over again, just to put the pieces together!

Interwoven mystery

Not until the very end do you get where this plot fits together. I found it riveting. Well drawn characters and highly descriptive language

You can't lose...

...with the combination of this author and the trio of narrators. They team up to give you a most entertaining story.

Tedious

The novel begins with an investigation into the relationship between the accidental death of a munitions tycoon and his complex business empire. Gradually it devolves into a sordid potboiler. High finance, double-crossing, prostitution, espionage, s?ances, adultery, drug use, insanity, murder -- this much sensational subject matter ought to produce a ripping tale, not one that numbs the listener with tedious details and irrelevant diversions of plot.

The story becomes more and more confusing with later parts contradicting earlier parts. The ending to the mystery is revealed (not discovered), something of a letdown, and so long in coming that it fails to shock.

All the narrators are excellent though. They are the only reason I gave this two stars.