Stone's Fall

Iain Pears unravels the story of an English arms supplier whose mysterious death (and mysterious wife) intersect with twentieth-century history. This lengthy story proceeds in a backwards chronology, starting in England in 1909 (after a prologue set in the 1950s), moving to Paris in the 1890s, and then to Venice in 1867. Like an audio tag team, John Lee, Simon Vance, and Roy Dotrice share the microphone, each doing an impeccable job with accents and narrative turns. Lee starts in London, Dotrice performs the Paris segment, and Vance completes the final hours in Venice. Each segment can stand alone as solid storytelling, but combined they create a trifecta that's mesmerizing, carefully plotted, and packed with fascinating historic details. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine