\n\t \n<\/p>\n
\n\t“THE PAGE TURNERS”<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tStone’s Fall by Iain Pears <\/strong><\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tPears has inverted the chronology of his tale so that, as the puzzle becomes more intricate, we move backwards from Edwardian London to Paris in 1890 and finally to Venice in 1867, in search of reasons for Stone's death? The use of 3 characters to tell the story was quite intriguing.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe book included interesting historical characters and varied settings. It played with ideas like spying switching from obtaining gossip from military personnel, to tracking money and industrial processes and using a clause in a will, to delay disclosure of a weak financial state.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe First part of the novel told by Matthew Braddock, a journalist, was the least satisfying. In the second part of the novel the story heats up. In Paris, Stone's tale is taken up by Henry Cort, an ex-banker and government informant with a longstanding connection to Stone's wife. The book gains pace here. The characters in this section are much more satisfactory and believable. Cort is a terrific character. His professional adventures guide us not only to the secret life of John Stone but to a fascinating period in history the arms race and spying.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn the final part of the novel Stone takes over his own story. A young man now, he has travelled alone to Venice, leaving his wife behind in England. His own account serves only to tie up a few loose ends. As a result, the pace of this section is slower.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe plot is well thought out and the incidental detail is excellent throughout. It is often a dense read, there are many characters and you have to concentrate on each one to keep up with the story. The ending was a twist too far!<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tA busy month so not read by all members but those who read it enjoyed it.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe book scored a 7.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “THE PAGE TURNERS” Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears Pears has inverted the chronology of his tale so that, as the puzzle becomes more intricate, we move backwards from Edwardian London to Paris in 1890 and finally to Venice in 1867, in search of reasons for Stone's death? The use of 3 characters to tell the story was quite intriguing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1aU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4950,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4950","url_meta":{"origin":4520,"position":0},"title":"“Arcadia” by Iain Pears","author":"Alan Williams","date":"16th September 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"Arcadia\" by Iain Pears is a long, complex novel which defeated several members of our group. However, three valiant women succeeded in completing the saga. The prose is easy reading but the book contains several anachronisms which at times confused the story line. The novel is extremely convoluted with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11560,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11560","url_meta":{"origin":4520,"position":1},"title":"April 2022 Book Choice","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th May 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart Nobody had time to sleep at the latest Page Turners meeting as the latest novel was vociferously discussed. The book is set in two timelines, 1944 and 1953, and tells the story of a baby given away by a mother as she boards the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16088,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16088","url_meta":{"origin":4520,"position":2},"title":"“Perfect” by Rachel Joyce","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"Perfect\" by Rachel Joyce Rachel Joyce wrote the bestselling novel of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so the Page Turners had high expectations for another of her novels, \"Perfect\". Perfect tells the story of two 11-year-old boys who plot to save their mother after she has a car\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for October 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for October 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=426"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7539,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7539","url_meta":{"origin":4520,"position":3},"title":"Page Turners Was Cancelled!","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd May 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Page turners was cancelled! Due to the coronavirus the April meeting of the Page turners was cancelled. As there was no discussion possible of the latest book, no review is available. However, it was decided that the Page turners would reflect on the 90+ books that have been read by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4085,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4085","url_meta":{"origin":4520,"position":4},"title":"The Muse by Jessie Burton","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Muse by Jessie Burton The Muse is a follow up novel to Jessie Burton\u2019s very successful first novel The Miniaturist, which has previously been reviewed by the Page Turners. The story is told in two timelines and centres on two creatively gifted young women, Olive Schloss an artist in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9883,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9883","url_meta":{"origin":4520,"position":5},"title":"More Walking\u00a0 Books","author":"Alan Williams","date":"10th July 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Walking\u00a0 Books The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood Social distancing continues, so a gentle stroll in the playing fields preceded our Page Turners\u2019 meeting lolling on the grass in the very sunny orchard! We discussed \u2018The Hiding Game\u2019 by Naomi Wood. This novel traces the chequered relationships of a group\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Picture13.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Picture13.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Picture13.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4521,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions\/4521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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