The fallen architect : a novel

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Title:

The fallen architect : a novel

Author:

Belfoure, Charles, 1954- author.

ISBN:

9781492662716

9781492679301

Physical Description:

322 pages : map ; 24 cm.

General Note:

Includes a reading group guide (319-322).

Subject Term:

Life change events -- Fiction.

Architects -- Fiction.

Ex-convicts -- Fiction.

Theater -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

London (England) -- Fiction.

Genre:

Suspense fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Summary:

Architect Douglas Layton has lost everything. The balcony of one of his beautiful music halls collapsed during a packed performance, killing dozens. Layton knows the flaw was not in his design; someone else must have caused the dreadful catastrophe. But with no proof and a hoard of furious Londoners screaming for blood, someone has to take the fall-and Layton finds himself facing a five-year prison sentence. When he is finally freed, Layton is determined to start over. With a new name and identity, he takes a job as a set painter. But as Layton begins to discover dead bodies hidden within theatre halls across London, it soon becomes clear that something darker is chasing him. When he unearths a clue that ties the bodies to the disaster that ruined him, he knows that redemption is within his reach?unless the culprit gets to him first.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Oakdale Library	FICTION BEL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	FICTION BEL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	FICTION BEL	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Architect!

Charles Belfoure's next novel is a puzzling historical thriller about a man who must dig through the rubble of his past to construct a future worth living, grounded by Belfoure's experiences as a professional architect.

Someone has to take the blame when the Britannia Theatre's balcony collapses. Over a dozen people are killed, and the fingers all point at the architect. The man should have known better, should have made it safer, should have done something.

Douglas Layton knows the flaw wasn't in his design, but he can't fight a guilty verdict. When the architect is finally released from prison, he has no job, no family, nowhere to go. He needs to assume a new identity and rebuild his life.

But the disgraced man soon finds himself digging up the past in a way he never anticipated. If the collapse wasn't an accident ... who caused it? And why? And what if they find out who he used to be?

A chilling novel of architecture, intrigue, and identity, this historical thriller uncovers one man's quest to clear his name and correct the mistake that ruined his life.

"A twisted mystery...Belfoure gets better and better"--Karen Bakshoian, Letterpress Books (Portland, ME)

Also by Charles Belfoure:

The Paris Architect

House of Thieves

Author Notes

Charles Belfoure is the nationally bestselling author of The Paris Architect. An architect by profession, he graduated from the Pratt Institute and Columbia University, and he taught at Pratt as well as Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. His area of specialty is historic preservation, and he has published several architectural histories, one of which won a Graham Foundation national grant for architectural research. He has been a freelance writer for The Baltimore Sun and TheNew York Times. He lives in Maryland. For more information, visit www.charlesbelfoure.com.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Architect Douglas Layton, the hero of this exceptional mystery from Belfoure (House of Thieves) set in early-20th-century England, emerges from prison with his career and reputation destroyed, clueless as to his future. Douglas was convicted of killing 14 people and injuring scores more when a balcony of London's Britannia Empire Theatre, which he designed, collapsed during a show. With help from his brother, Douglas gets a job as a theater scene painter, changes his name to Frank Owen, and alters his appearance as best he can. In his new job, Douglas discovers that one of the theaters where he works hides a skeleton. A second such finding fuels his suspicions that the balcony collapse that changed his life was not an accident but deliberate, murderous sabotage. Douglas has to suss out suspects and avoid detection as he sets out to prove his innocence. Along the way, Belfoure offers the reader glimpses of early motion pictures, variety hall jokes that are still funny, and a description of Edward VII consuming a 10-course meal. This wonderfully realized background coupled with insights into British society make this a standout. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A disgraced architect struggles to clear his name in Belfoure's third architecture-based thriller.In 1900, Londoners flock to the gala opening of the new Britannia Empire Theatre. During a comedian's routine, a balcony collapses, killing 14 and maiming countless others. Douglas Layton, a prominent architect who rose from humble roots to marry into the aristocracy, designed the Britannia and is blamed for the carnage. After serving five years in prison, Layton, divorced and barred from seeing his son, is adrift and a drunk. When he lands a job as scene painter for the Grand Imperial Theatre in Nottingham, he seizes this opportunity to reinvent himself. Under an assumed name, he wins the affections of the "artistes" whose backdrops he paints and the love of Cissie Mapes, who runs the theaters of the powerful MacMillan Empire syndicate, which turns out to have included the ill-fated Britannia. With trepidation, he soon accepts a transfer to MacMillan's London circuit. Despite his new identity, his reputation as "The Butcher of the West End" has preceded him; he's bedeviled by a builder whose career also ended with the Britannia job, a blackmailer, and at least two unseen attackers. But Layton's architect's eye is ever attuned to minor details, and when he notices plaster and mortar anomalies in two MacMillan venues, his digging unearths skeletons in each location. Telling clues point to the fact that those interred were his two former associates. Could they have been murdered because they realized the balcony defects were deliberately engineered? Layton sets about trying to learn who stood to gain from the Britannia collapse by researching possible ties linking the 14 casualties to the likeliest culpritsthe MacMillan owners, the head of a rival syndicate, and the aggrieved builder. Once Belfoure embarks on this expansive fishing expedition, another structural failure looms: Since the suspects' imputed motives conflict, a few of the deaths have to be coincidentalbut which ones? It is a cul de sac from which Belfoure, himself an architect, cannot design a convincing exit.The music hall dcor and atmosphere help distract from the flawed whodunit. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Hiding his working-class background, Douglas Layton worked his way up in the rigid British class system to become a preeminent London architect by the end of the nineteenth century. But his climb to the top derailed when part of the balcony in the Britannia Empire Theatre, which he designed, crashed during a performance, killing 14 and maiming more. Vilified as the Butcher of the West End, he served five years in prison while his wife (daughter of a lord) divorced him, his young son was kept from him, and his professional association ousted him. Remaking himself as Frank Owen, a painter of scenery cloths for theaters, Layton makes some gruesome discoveries that convince him that the Britannia disaster was not an accident, prompting him to look into who had motive and means to cause the tragedy. All the while, he manages to escape the efforts of at least one person hellbent on killing him. In his brisk prose style, Belfoure presents a splendidly diverse cast of characters, constructing a multifaceted puzzle and evoking a vivid sense of place in the process. Fine entertainment with an upbeat finale.--Michele Leber Copyright 2018 Booklist

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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