Iain Pears: Stone's Fall (UK 2010)

From the Publisher:
In his most dazzling and brilliant novel since An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and armaments manufacturer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole 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 goes backwards -- London in 1909, then Paris in 1890, and finally Venice in 1867 -- and Stone's character and motivation deepen as the book progresses; in the first part he is almost an abstraction, existing only in the memory of those who knew him; in the second he is a character, but only a secondary one; in the third he is the narrator of the story. A quest, then, but also 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 twentieth century's arms race.

Like Fingerpost, Stone's Fall is an intricate and richly satisfying puzzle, completely engaging on many levels, a triumphant return for one of the world's great storytellers.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall. Vintage, ISBN: 9780099516170 (June, 2010), 608 p., £7.99.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall (USA 2010)

From the Publisher:
At his London home, John Stone falls out of a window to his death. A financier and arms dealer, Stone was a man so wealthy that he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents. Did he jump, was he pushed, or was it merely a tragic accident? His alluring and enigmatic widow hires a young crime reporter to investigate. The story moves backward in time -- from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890 and finally to Venice in 1867 -- and the attempts to uncover the truth play 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. Stone's Fall is a tale of love and frailty, as much as it is of high finance and skulduggery. The mixture, then, as now, is an often fatal combination.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall. Spiegel & Grau, ISBN: 9780385522854 (June, 2010), 608 p., $16.00.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall (UK 2009)

From the Publisher:
In his most dazzling and brilliant novel since An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and armaments manufacturer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole 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 goes backwards -- London in 1909, then Paris in 1890, and finally Venice in 1867 -- and Stone's character and motivation deepen as the book progresses; in the first part he is almost an abstraction, existing only in the memory of those who knew him; in the second he is a character, but only a secondary one; in the third he is the narrator of the story. A quest, then, but also 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 twentieth century's arms race.

Like Fingerpost, Stone's Fall is an intricate and richly satisfying puzzle, completely engaging on many levels, a triumphant return for one of the world's great storytellers.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall. Jonathan Cape, ISBN: 9780224081795 (May, 2009), 597 p., £18.99.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall (USA 2009)

From the Publisher:
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.

Iain Pears: Stone's Fall. Spiegel & Grau, ISBN: 9780385522847 (May, 2009), 594 p., $27.95.