Customer Reviews
Amazing debut novel - By: Bluebell, 20 Sep 2008 
This is an astonishing first novel. The writing is so vibrant & fresh & the imaginative story captures the attention carrying the reader through this long book. The story does have echos of 19th century novels such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights & the Woman in White, but is not merely derivative of these books. Highly recommended.
A plot that keeps you guessing and guessing - By: Aesop, 18 Aug 2008 Very subdued opening to a story that hooks & draws you in with unexpected speed. Two women writers ... one, celebrated for her fictional tales & nearing the end of her life, commissions the other, a young obscure biographer to tell her life story; a story her legion of fans have hankered for years to hear but never have, for how guilefully Vida Winter has covered her past. Now she's ready to confess alll. But can she be trusted to tell the truth after so many lies told for so long?
The shifts & turns in this tale are innumerable, the storytelling fluid & utterly absorbing. There's one vital aspect of the mystery I doubt many readers will guess until mere lines from its revelation, if that. The description of the bookshop in which Margaret has grown up learning to care for old books long-forgotten by the world felt powerfully like the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in Ruiz Zafón's 'The Shadow of the Wind'. Both stories celebrate a love of books.
There's no urgency to the style of writing in 'The Thirteenth Tale', yet the cleverness with which tidbits are parcelled out to the reader had me turning the pages devouringly to find out more. A wonderfully realised first novel from this author.
Thirteen is certainly not unlucky here - By: Joanne D'Arcy, 10 Aug 2008 Where to start with what in my opinion is a pure gem! If you love reading, if you love bookshops if you love finding out stories then this is the book for you.
Margaret Lea is content in her life, having made some smalll biographies on people that have long passed from this world when she is contacted by Vida Winter an author who is at the end of her writing career & nearly her life & wants to tell her `real' story & wants Margaret to do it for her.
Margaret the narrator takes us on the journey with her as she discovers the real story & at the same time reveals some ghosts from her own past. The author shows Margaret discovering about Vida from the very beginning, from before when anyone's story starts (that of their ancestors) & takes us right up to the present circumstances of Vida. As the reader we see alll the unanswered questions & puzzles that face Margaret & we see how she unravels the `real' truth & works out the past. There are no loose ends by the end of the book, you know what has happened to them alll, while it does not leave you wondering what happened to certain people, it leaves you basking in the story & going back to revisit the clues.
The author manages to capture the real atmosphere of the bookshop where Margaret works with her father, the house where Vida lives & also alll the interlocking stories which are weaved from the characters which subsequently effect the actions of Vida but also Margaret. Margaret gets embroiled in the story & starts to realise the connection & unanswered questions about her own past.
You cannot date this book there are no references to years or dates the only mention of time was the onset of winter & Christmas. This makes it even more mysterious & alll consuming which draws you in even more. The many references to Jane Eyre are apparent within the book. The author must have a great love of this book & used it is a basis of a thrilling gothic tale, where everything may not be as it seems.
An excellent debut novel & I look forward to more from this author.
Another Eyre affair ... - By: Annabel Gaskell, 16 Apr 2008 
I was a bit underwhelmed by this homage to Jane Eyre. I found it hard to like the narrator & erstwhile biographer Margaret who is rather dry, & the famous author she goes to interview is meant to be prickly at first & then grow on you. This alll makes the first third slower going - but then the twists & turns start coming at you fast until we reach the end out of breath. We have the sub-plot with Margaret's twin to contend with, which is maybe there to give you a breather, but distracts from the main story. OddlyI found it hard to place the novel in time, no years are ever mentioned, there are no mobile phones in the world of the antiquarian bookseller, & Miss Winter's story has alll the Gothic elements you could ever wish for.
A curious psychological drama - a fairly enjoyable read for me. One positive thing - it has made me want to re-read Jane Eyre!
The perfect book group read - By: MaryAnne, 29 Mar 2008 I just loved this book, written in such a beautiful style that I wouldn't have minded if it had said nothing - but the content was fascinating & made for an excellent book group discussion.
Margaret Lea, a young reclusive biographer, is surprised to receive an invitation from the famous Mrs Winter, a highly acclaimed & productive author who tells a different version of her life story to every interviewer.
She has decided to tell 'The Truth'.
And so we get a book within a book, the fascinating story of Vida Winter & her ancestors, an aristocratic, eccentric family - with the lives of the author & the biographer wrapped around the outside.
And to top it alll, a mystery that makes you want to go back & reread the book for alll the clues you missed first time. Excellent!
