Stone's Fall - Iain Pears

Stone's Fall has been high on my list to read for some time, after an overwhelmingly positive five-star review from Jackie at Farm Lane Books. If you know Jackie, she doesn't hand out these types of reviews often, so when she does, I stand up and take notice. I put the book on my wish list, and lo and behold, my Secret Santa, Trisha at Eclectic/Eccentric, bought it for me this Christmas! I promptly put the book on my TBR Challenge list.

Despite Jackie's excellent review of this book, I still was not quite prepared for the enormity or the impact of this story.

The basic premise of the book revolves around a highly successful businessman, John Stone, who has tripped and fallen out of a window in his home and died tragically in turn-of-the-century London. His young widow hires a journalist (one completely inept in all things financial and our narrator in Part 1) to track down a unidentified child of Stone's who was bequeathed a large sum of money in his will. Stone is a shadowy, enigmatic figure; it is hard to pin him down. The more the journalist digs into Stone's complex world of bonds, buyouts, espionage and secrets, the more we all discover that there is more to Stone than meets the eye. The stage has been set with an intriguing cast of characters that surrounded Stone in life. An ambitious hooker. A British spy. A widow with a past. A fortune-teller. Colorful folks.

Part 2 and 3 of the novel progressively steps back in time, narrated by an associate of Stone's, and then finally Stone himself. Stone's history is revealed, peeled back layer by layer, as well as the history of his wife, his colleagues, and events that made Stone the man he is. Character development is intricately established; it is complex and thorough, in the form of 600 pages that cannot be quickly consumed.

Granted, I was reading this book while being distracted by bathroom renovations, book fair preparations, and the kids' busy schedules. But I questioned whether all those pages were necessary. Until I got to the end.

The only comparison I could come up with was this. Imagine you are hanging out with I.M. Pei while he is slinging together a bar of steel, and pane of glass, some bricks and stuff. Detailed work. He is talented for sure, a master, and fun to watch, but what is he really up to? Your mind wanders. Then you look up, and voila! The Pyramide du Louvre.

At it's heart, this is a classic mystery, with a completely unexpected, satisfying twist at the end. Jackie compared it to Fingersmith, and I wouldn't disagree. As with the I.M. Pei analogy, I look back on the reading experience, and wish I would have paid closer attention to details, with my new found knowledge gained at book's end. It begs for a re-read. It begs to have its praises sung. Read it now.

5 out of 5 stars