The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Former academic Setterfield pays tribute in her debut to Brontë and du Maurier heroines: a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. Margaret Lea, a London bookseller's daughter, has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings. She is contacted by renowned aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Margaret travels to Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to verify the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby. With the aid of colorful Aurelius Love, Margaret puzzles out generations of Angelfield: destructive Uncle Charlie; his elusive sister, Isabelle; their unhappy parents; Isabelle's twin daughters, Adeline and Emmeline; and the children's caretakers. Contending with ghosts and with a (mostly) scary bunch of living people, Setterfield's sensible heroine is, like Jane Eyre, full of repressed feeling—and is unprepared for both heartache and romance. And like Jane, she's a real reader and makes a terrific narrator. That's where the comparisons end, but Setterfield, who lives in Yorkshire, offers graceful storytelling that has its own pleasures. (Sept.)

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Title :  The Thirteenth Tale
Author:  Diane Setterfield
Publisher:  Atria Books
Date:  2006
Source:  Purchased
Pages:  708

My Review:
Ahhh! I do not really know where to begin in reviewing this book because there are so very many great things to be said about it.  The first thing that comes to mind, are the many different paths that it takes the reader down.  It will keep you guessing for all 708 glorious pages.  Just when you think you have something figured out, there comes along another unforeseen twist.
The characters are awesome!  Each of them have such depth that they become real and leap from the pages right  into your reality.  This story is being narrated by a lovely girl named Margaret.  Margaret is a bibliophile, a biographer, and in a way she is also a detective.  She is writing the life story of the world's most beloved authoress, Ms Winter.  Along the way, Margaret gets herself caught in to the  mysterious past of Ms Winters.  Not only is Margaret writing the biography , but she is also trying to solve the mystery that she has gotten herself mixed up in.  All the while she is lost in Ms Winter's story, she is also dealing with her own personal demons.
You will form many, many questions along the way, but not to worry because they will all be answered in the end.  Don't you just hate to read a book that leaves you hanging?  Well, The Thirteenth Tale will not do that.  Every mystery that is uncovered during this story will be answered.
You will not be disappointed with this book!  It has something new to discover around every corner!