The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Let me preface this review by saying I do not care for mystery thrillers or books about ghosts.  I also am one of the heathens that didn't care for East of Eden and, this book had quite a few similarities in my mind to the characters of East of Eden.  The fact that I loved this book and was able to get past all of those things is a testament to the expertise of the author.


This mystery thriller is about Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has a reputation of giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Vida now swears she wants Margaret to write "the truth".

The writing is excellent and the story unfolds in such a way that I couldn't wait to read what would happen next.  Just when I would piece two things together and would think "Oh"  And then "Oh!"  And then "OH!", Margaret Lea would also put those two things together and Setterfield would lead me further in to the story to discover the next two inter-connecting pieces right before Margaret Lea did.  I realized the author was skillfully leading me into the forest as I happily followed the crumb trail.  Only at the end did Margaret Lea go "Oh"  And then "Oh!"  And then OH!", while I sat reading going "What?!?" and the author skillfully led me to the final unfolding of the story.

Setterfield does so many beautiful things that I can not do justice to her writing by trying to capture it here.  Read the book and discover it for yourself.

I can't wait for Miss Setterfield's next book which, unfortunately isn't due till July 2012.


Rating: 4.8 Excellent