The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield – Review

TITLE: The Thirteenth Tale
AUTHOR: Diane Setterfield
PUBLISHER: Atria
PUBLICATION DATE: September 2006
PAGES: 416 pages
GENRE: Fiction

A compelling emotional mystery in the timeless vein of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling.

Margaret Lea works in her father’s antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself – all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons.

Reading books and surfing the web are a great way to relax in the evenings, whether it’s scaring yourself reading a spooky mystery book, or playing a light hearted game of foxybingo.com. The Thirteenth Tale might even encourage you to fish out your childhood diary and reminisce a little. But don’t worry, the only scary thing in your diary is probably the hairstyles.

Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject – and Vida starts to recount her tale. It is one of gothic strangeness featuring the March family; the fascinating, devious and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline.

Margaret is captivated by the power of Vida’s storytelling. But as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction, and she doesn’t entirely trust Vida’s account. She goes to check up on the family, visiting their old home and piecing together their story in her own way. What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling and transforming experience. – FROM BARNES & NOBLES

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…From page 1 right to the end, Diane Setterfield enraptured my mind with a story about a story intertwined with several stories. The secrets, the ghosts, the books, and the people transported me to various places and times. I was filled with an anxiety, a need, to solve the puzzle of The Thirteenth Tale by Vida Winters as the clues were laid before Margaret Leah and me, the reader. How can you really talk about this book other than it was a great book that I have to have for my bookshelf and one that I know I’ll want to read again another time and perhaps another?? My emotions were were twisted and twisted as I read this novel. Towards the end I THOUGHT I had it figured out only to realize I completely missed things earlier in the stories. THAT’S a good book. One that throws me off, one that grabs and twists my emotions, and one that touches my soul as a sister…FIVE STARS, if I gave 5s that is. So 4++++++!!

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