Here is a review from reader Nancy Duncan:
Just like "Rebecca."
I mean that in the best sense. In "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield, we get a classic gothic novel, full of ghosts, haunted mansions and dark secrets. Setterfield has taken lessons from DuMaurier and the Bronte sisters.
Margaret Lea, an unassuming, bookish writer is asked by England's most popular author, Vida Winter, to come to her estate and write her biography. What results is a book full of secrets. Is Vida Winter telling the truth, or is she just spinning another story? Is Margaret finding out about Vida's secrets or her own?
Setterfield gives the reader many characters, among them mad and destructive Uncle Charlie; his sister Isabelle who has her own very weird problems, her twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline who are raised as feral children until a governess comes along to tame them (or does she?), and the two elderly caretakers of the estate. All come under the spell of the house and its ghosts.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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