Title: The Thirteenth Tale

Author: Diane Setterfield

Series: Stand-alone

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 432 Pages (Paperback)

Original Publication Date: September 12, 2006

Overall Rating:
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Summary from Back Cover

My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie. –Vida Winter

My Thoughts

The reason I decided to read The Thirteenth Tale is because of a book group I joined on Shelfari.  The group is called Play Book Tag.  (For those of you not familiar with this term, tags, a method of folksonomy, allow you to manage, annotate, and categorize content.)  Each month a new tag is chosen, allowing you to pick a book from a list of books categorized within that tag to read.  It’s a book club with a little more freedom, which I like.  Anyway, October’s tag was “England,” so I chose The Thirteenth Tale.

The story’s about an English author, Vida Winters, who isn’t too keen on revealing anything about her life, especially her past.  Over the course of her career, different reporters and biographers have attempted to find the truth about her past.  To their dismay, Miss Winters always tells a new story rather than the truth.  However, upon Miss Winter’s death bed, she hires a biographer, Margaret Lea, to witness her tragic story.

I thought the story was very intriguing.  I found myself wanting to know how everything fit together.  Miss Winter’s past had such an element of mystery to it that I couldn’t help but wonder what was really going on.  When I finished it, I wasn’t disappointed and I came away with a satisfied feeling.  It’s definitely a good read.