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The Thirteenth Tale

On sale

1st November 2007

Price: £8.99

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780752881676

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Now a major BBC film, directed by Oscar-winner Christopher Hampton (Atonement and Dangerous Liaisons), starring Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman.

Angelfield House stands abandoned and forgotten. It was once home to the March family – fascinating, manipulative Isabelle, brutal, dangerous Charlie, and the wild, untamed twins, Emmeline and Adeline. But Angelfield House hides a chilling secret which strikes at the very heart of each of them, tearing their lives apart…

Now Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield’s past – and the mystery of the March family starts to unravel. What has Angelfield been hiding? What is its connection with the enigmatic writer Vida Winter? And what is the secret that strikes at the heart of Margaret’s own, troubled life?

As Margaret digs deeper, two parallel stories unfold, and the tale she uncovers sheds a disturbing light on her own life…

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Reviews

Catherine Shoard, Evening Standard
A fireside mystery with all the grisly trimmings
Emma Hagestadt, INDEPENDENT
This surprise bestseller is an enjoyably windswept story of incest, unnatural love and northern nastiness
Katie Owen, Daily Telegraph
highly accomplished...intriguing twists galore
FIRST
a captivating read
LONDON LITE
A firesdie mystery with all the grisly trimmings
My Weekly
An involving and engrossing tale full of twists and turns...hard to put down!
WOMAN & HOME
The Thirteenth Tale has all the ingredients of a gripping thriller with twists, turns and false leads to keep you guessing...a beautifully written and absorbing mystery
THE LADY
riveting from start to finish
TIME OUT
A real treat...Like all the best first novels, this one seems to bulge with a lifetime's hoarded inspirations. Setterfield litters the book with references to nineteenth-century gothic literature and other meta-textual winks and nudges. The effect is of a lit-crit parlour game, which only adds to the fun
THE TIMES
Beautifully written and highly intelligent. Blissful escapism for literate (and literary) females who love an old-fashioned story
INDEPENDENT
Cleverly plotted, beautifully written homage to the classic romance mystery novel...It is a remarkable first novel, a book about the joy of books, a riveting multi-layered mystery that twists and turns, and weaves a quite magical spell
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Whimsical, moving and consciously nostalgic, Diane Setterfield knows the limits of enchantment, even as she tries to break them
DAILY MAIL
This bold, unusual debut is, as a Jane Austen character might have said, a vastly entertaining fiction
GUARDIAN
Setterfield proves a mistress of the craft of storytelling and her musings about the pleasures of reading are beguiling
MAIL ON SUNDAY
Guiltily enjoyable
SPECTATOR
A witty, entertaining and very satisfying read
DAILY EXPRESS
Make yourself a mug of cocoa and shut the curtains tight - a generous helping of gothic delight is about to be served
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
A remarkably compelling debut...This is an extraordinary, unusual and atmospheric story with a sense of timelessness about it. It is rare to be able to smell a book as well as read it, but this one is steeped in the aroma of old houses in remote places with strange faded furnishings and little natural light. It will appeal to anybody with a love of literature and a passion for the feel and smell of old books
EASY LIVING
Brilliantly written - recommended
THE LIST
A dark mystery in the vein of Daphne du Maurier about family secrets and the potency of storytelling
WOMAN & HOME
Compelling page-turner
SHE
A page-turner of a Gothic mystery
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Setterfield establishes, from the very first page, one of those narrative voices which you trust implicitly, warming to its calm understated authority
YORKSHIRE EVENING POST
THE THIRTEENTH TALE is the sort of novel they don't write any more, which makes it all the more welcome. Add to this Setterfield's remarkable imagination coupled with her literate style and you have the makings of a modern classic
WOMAN'S OWN
This is an excellent emotional mystery which I found harder to put down every night!
LITERARY REVIEW
Setterfield writes evocatively and assuredly
THE SCOTSMAN
Setterfield is a master of pacing
INDEPENDENT
The moorland romances of the Brontes and Daphne du Maurier are never far away from our vision of a perfect Christmas read. Draw up a chair, then, for debut novelist Diane Setterfield. It's a windswept feast of abandoned babies, incestuous siblings and feral twins
Kate Mosse
Simply brilliant - I haven't enjoyed a first novel so much for absolutely ages
COSMOPOLITAN
Start reading this on the bus and, I swear, you won't only miss your stop, you might even lose the whole day
DAILY MAIL
Vastly entertaining