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.

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.

Product Description: 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...read more

After British art historian Jonathan Argyll sells a minor masterpiece to an American museum for an exorbitant price, the museum's owner is murdered, a disreputable art dealer disappears with a Bernini bust, and Argyll discovers his life is in danger. Reprint.

Journeying to a remote French island to sit for a portrait that is painted by his tormented artist friend, an influential London art critic recalls the early years of their friendship, his own influence over aspiring artists, and the power struggle between subject and artist in the course of the sitting. By the author of An Instance of the Fingerpost. Reprint. 100,000 first printing.

From bestselling author Iain Pears comes an ingenious new mystery -- the seventh in his Jonathan Argyll series. THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION For newlywed and Italian Art Theft Squad head Flavia di Stefano, the honeymoon is over when a painting, borrowed from the Louvre and en route to a celebratory exhibition, is stolen. Desperate to avoid public embarrassment -- and to avoid paying a ransom -- the Italian prime minister leans hard on Flavia to get it back quickly and quietly. Across town her husband, art historian Jonathan Argyll, begins an investigation of his own tracing the past of a small Renaissance painting -- an Immaculate Conception -- owned by Flavia's mentor, retired General Taddeo Bottando. Soon both husband and wife uncover astonishing and chilling secrets, and Flavia's investigation takes a sudden turn from the search for an art thief to the hunt for a murderer.

Product Description: En los últimos días del Imperio Romano, durante la Peste Negra y en las más oscuras horas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, tres hombres buscan refugio de la locura que les rodea.Sus historias están unidas por su fatal amor hacia una extraordinaria mujer y por un texto clásico, El sueño de Escipión, una obra que plantea cuesti...read more

A thrilling tale of intrigue and murder set in the heart of Italy's art world pits Jonathan Argyll and his fiancée, art squad investigator Flavia di Stefano, against a wily band of thieves that steals a painting reputed to have miraculous powers. Reprint.

Product Description: En los últimos días del Imperio Romano, durante la Peste Negra y en las más oscuras horas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, tres hombres buscan refugio de la locura que les rodea. Ambientada en Provenza en tres diferentes momentos críticos de la civilización occidental, El sueño de Escipión recoge el destino de Manlio Hipómane...read more

Following a clue provided by a dying woman's confession, General Bottando of Rome's Art Theft Squad sets off on a world-wide search for the man he calls Giotto, whom he believes is responsible for a series of major heists. Reprint.

An ancient manuscript called 'The Dream of Scipio' links three separate centuries--the fifth, the end of the Roman Empire; the fourteenth, the time of the Black Death; and the twentieth during World War II--and three stories of love, all set in Provence.

Hired to deliver a painting from a Parisian art dealer to a client in Rome, British art historian and amateur sleuth Jonathan Argyll suddenly finds himself caught up in a double murder and begins a probe that uncovers a secret hidden since World War II. Reprint.

Vandalism and murder follow a newly discovered Raphael painting to London, and Bottando decides to investigate with the help of his glamorous assistant, Flavia

Product Description: La cuarta verdad presenta al lector un cuadro completo de las ideas filosóficas predominantes en la época. Pero el gran acierto del autor, atribuible sin duda a su afinada capacidad de narrar, es haber recreado fielmente no sólo los hábitos y costumbre de un tiempo pasado, sino también la manera de pensar y de ver el mund...read more

Sent to Venice by Rome's Art Theft Squad to help local police solve a murder, Flavia di Stefano embarks on a search for the killer of a member of the famed Titian research committee. Reprint.

In an epic literary mystery, when a fellow of New College in seventeenth-century Oxford is found dead and a young woman is accused of his murder, four witnesses, each with their own agenda, tell what they saw, but only one speaks the truth. Reprint.

A thrilling tale of intrigue and murder set in the heart of Italy's art world pits Jonathan Argyll and art squad investigator Flavia di Stefano against a wily band of thieves that steals a painting reputed to have miraculous powers. 15,000 first printing.

Following a clue provided by a dying woman's confession, General Bottando of Rome's Art Theft Squad sets off on a world-wide search for the man he calls Giotto, whom he believes is responsible for a series of major heists.

Product Description: Before 1680, the English were largely uninterested in painting, but in the decades that followed they became Europe's most assiduous collectors. In this book, the author explains both the causes and effects of this burgeoning interest in art. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)