A review by katie_mo
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

2.0

Setterfield's first novel, The Thirteenth Tale, is so, so fantastic. She set the bar very high for herself, and, sadly Bellman & Black fails to clear the bar. That said, this book will definitely appeal to lovers of nineteenth-century novels, because that is what it felt like to read: the pacing is slow, the plot very singular, the atmosphere gloomy. I'm not sure if there is an intended mystery in this book; the resolution made it feel like perhaps there was, but I had correctly guessed this resolution much, much earlier on, so I was left a bit baffled as to whether or not I'd read a "twist," as it were.

Although my memory is spotty of actual content, for some reason I was put in mind of George Eliot's Middlemarch while reading, or a Nathaniel Hawthorne story, only less compelling. I'd say pass over this one in favor of Setterfield's ode to books and a page-turning story, The Thirteenth Tale.