This epic novel is in three parts and is written as a historical mystery, a romance, and a complicated relationships tale that takes place over three or more cities in the continent. The references to historical events are mostly correct, and if there were inconsistencies, I didn’t catch them.

In the story, Matthew Braddock, a reporter and sometime private eye, after attending an old acquaintances’ funeral in Paris, is approached by the solicitor of the dead woman. The solicitor tells Matthew that his firm has a package for him. On his way back to London Matthew remembers the events of the time when he met the mysterious woman, Elizabeth, now deceased, who employed him to investigate a certain part of her dead husband’s will.

As much as the author is successful to make the reader become emotionally involved with this first part of his long novel, the real story of Elizabeth and her husband John Stone’s relationship and the reasons for Stone’s death, by falling from a window, are contained in the two unusual packages sent to Matthew. Inside those packages are the events that shaped Stone’s life starting from 1890 to the day of his death.

Throughout the novel, Elizabeth’s husband Baron Ravenscliff, born John William Stone, whose death has been an unsolved puzzle, is as much a protagonist as is Elizabeth. In the first part, the point of view is that of Matthew Broderick. In the second part, the POV belongs to British Spy Henry Cort and his relationship to Stone and Elizabeth. The third part is written from the viewpoint of John Stone and has the denouement of the main plot that ties all the loose ends.

The characters with their flaws, quirkiness, and specific attributes open up to the reader very slowly as carefully chosen by the author. As it is a looking back type of a story and the timeline moves back and forth quite a bit, the plot seems to be complicated and difficult. Yet, when all mysteries were revealed in the last part, it left me with awe, so much so that I wanted to go back and read the first two parts to get a better understanding.

This novel, heavy in plot and in volume, asks a lot from its reader, but at the end, it is all worth the trouble.

the weaving of the plot and the slow and calculated way the author showed the different characteristics of the people in the story.

read other books by this author.

is Iain Pears (born in 1955) is an award-winning English art historian, novelist, and journalist.

His other works are: The Discovery of Painting, Jonathan Argyll series, An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Dream of Scipio, The Portrait, Arcadia.

it is an epic, wonderfully written, and if the reader has patience to read novels this long, it is one he or she shouldn't miss. I also consider it to be the best novel I have read in 2014.

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Created Nov 09, 2014 at 12:13pm • Submit your own review...