Second Novels: As Good as the First?

I loved Diane Setterfield’s first novel, The Thirteenth Tale, a sort of creepy ghost story and homage to the gothic novel in the tradition of Jane Eyre, so I am definitely excited by the prospect of her new novel, Bellman and Black.

If you’re not familiar with The Thirteenth Tale, the novel centers on the character of Vida Winter, a popular novelist, who, after sixty years of fabricating stories about her past, is finally ready to tell the story of her life. She chooses as her biographer the reclusive Margaret Lea, writer and daughter of a London bookseller, to write Vida’s own final tale. When Margaret travels to Yorkshire (yes, Yorkshire, all you Bronte fans) and begins to unravel the mystery surrounding Vida’s stranger-than-fiction life, she is forced to come to term with her own family secrets. Plot twists abound in Setterfield’s haunting story, filled with crumbling mansions, English moors, madness, multiple births and even a ghost or two. You can see why I might crave another book by this author, especially since The Thirteenth Tale was published in 2006, making for a long wait for the next book.

Bellman and Black, Diane Setterfield’s new novel to be released on November 5, seems to be another sort of creepy ghost story as well. William Bellman commits a single cruel act as a little boy; he kills a rook with a slingshot. But the consequences of this act will come to haunt William’s life. When William grows up, marries and has children of his own, he seems to lead a very fortunate life indeed until the day tragedy strikes and the stranger in black arrives. In a frantic effort to save what he has left, William enters into a very odd bargain with a very odd stranger and founds the dreadful business of Bellman and Black.

Often second novels do not live up to the first effort of the author, but I am anxious to see if Diane Setterfield’s second book is as good as her first. Plus fall is a good time to read a spooky book, right? I’ll just add Bellman and Black to my list, my very long list, of books I want to read.