Stone's Fall

De: Iain Pears

Narrado por: Gareth Armstrong, Daniel Coonan, Jonathan Keeble

This is the story of John Stone, financier and armaments manufacturer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War I he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed whole countries and continents.

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

Chronologically, it goes backwards, and Stone's character deepens as the book progresses. Here is a love story and a murder mystery, set against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe's first great age of espionage, and the start of the 20th century's arms race.

©2009 Iain Pears (P)2009 Isis Publishing Ltd

Historical ooze

Storylines aside, Iain Peers (re)creates fabulous historical tableaus which ooze: the smells, textures, surfaces and light of a time that is not our own - it's worth the price of admission alone. While I enjoyed Stone's Fall, I found it dragged in places. I prefer the tighter 'An Instance of the Fingerpost'.

Woven Tapestry

This is a very good listen for it explores the plot from a variety of veiwpoints. Complex but not complicated, elegant but not fluffy. Am on my third listen and still it holds the attention.