The author’s style was light and energetic. His description was effective and drew you into the story. I know there were several times throughout the book where I found myself relating to the main character and many times I even thought ‘that’s happened to me, too’. Which is ridiculous considering the storyline, but there you are.

All children mythologize their birth...So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist. The Blood-Stained Pavement – first published in Volume 102, Number 2 on 23 June under the title Drip! Drip! Among the party was a young man called Jerry Lorimer who was engaged to Sylvia, to the opposition of Sir Ambrose; but, after a year of the engagement, Sir Ambrose had given in. Also there was Maud Wye, supposedly a friend of Jerry, but Mrs Bantry had seen Jerry kissing her one evening. Six months after Sylvia's death, the two were married. Dr Lloyd is puzzled as a fatal poisoning by the use of foxglove leaves – if it was an accident – is difficult to achieve; the alkaloid has to be extracted with great care and Sir Henry latches onto the main problem of the case, namely: how do you ensure that only your victim dies if you poison everyone, including yourself (assuming the murderer to be one of the house party)? And so begins “The Thirteenth Hour,” a tale about dreams and wishes, wild hearts and childhood promises, and the quest to find the unsung hero that lies in all of us.What has Angelfield been hiding? What is the secret that strikes at the heart of Margaret's own, troubled life? And can both women ever confront the ghosts that haunt them...? and boy, i had NO idea i was going to get a gothic ghost story. the format is very ‘the seven husbands of evelyn hugo,’ but instead of hollywood, its victorian jane eyre. it was a complete surprise how kind of spooky this story is. i really dont want to say much because, honestly, i would recommend readers go into this blind to get the full effect. This quote from The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield sums up my experience with the book. It’s been a while since I’ve felt truly drawn in to a novel. Likely this is the result of my recent tendency toward selecting less-than-literary books in an attempt to find some distraction without devoting much real focus to the reading. I’ll admit that it took me a bit to get hooked, but, a few chapters in, I found myself thinking about the novel and the developing plot at times when I was unable to be reading. Logan and Aurora were so much fun to read about! every twist and turn of the book was filled with humor and it was so much fun! I really enjoyed their quest especially. It involved many mythical creatures that made the story just that much more entertaining and fun to read!

Margaret finds herself unable to refuse the job. And as Vida Winters opens up more and more, both women are forced to confront the demons of their pasts.On the same straight line there shall not be constructed two other straight lines terminating at different points on the same side, having the same extremities as the original straight lines." The final story in the book, Death by Drowning, was first published in issue 462 of Nash's Pall Mall Magazine in November 1931, with illustrations by J.A. May. In the United States, the first six stories appeared in Detective Story Magazine in 1928, with uncredited illustrations, as follows: Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes–characters even–caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you"

The Thirteenth Hour is is a fantastical adventure with a little bit of attitude. I think that is the book's most interesting aspect. It mixes medieval fantasy with modern dialogue. This makes the characters fun and just a little mischievous. It also gives the dialogue a natural flow and believability. I greatly enjoyed the characters; especially, the protagonist. I loved seeing this character grow and become the unlikely hero he was destined to be. The story is filled with myths, wizards, dragons and over the top super beings; all of which make for a fun, and often, funny read. Much of the deconstruction is very interesting as it compares myriad definitions of the very basics of geometry. For example, a source believed to be Euclid said a line is made up of a collection of infinitely many points that extends to infinity while Appolonius said it is the path traced by a single point moving in one dimension. Now Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield’s past – and the mystery of the March family starts to unravel. What has Angelfield been hiding? What is its connection with the enigmatic writer Vida Winter? And what is the secret that strikes at the heart of Margaret’s own, troubled life? John Cooper and B.A. Pyke. Detective Fiction – the collector's guide: Second Edition (pp. 82, 87) Scholar Press. 1994; ISBN 0-85967-991-8

Blog Archive

Sir Henry Clithering tells his story, still a puzzle to him. There are four suspects, three of whom are therefore as much victims as the real victim in that they are under constant suspicion. It concerns a German secret society, the Schwartze Hand, started after the war, with methods and objectives similar to those of the Camorra. Dr Rosen, prominent in secret service work, penetrated the organisation and managed to bring about its downfall. Despite this success, he was a marked man and came to England, living in a cottage in Somerset, expecting he might be murdered. His household comprised his niece Greta; an old servant, Gertrud; a local gardener Dobbs; and Dr Rosen's secretary, Charles Templeton, whom Clithering reveals was one of his own men, put in the house to keep an eye on things (but possibly not totally above suspicion). In many ways, this is the perfect book: affordable, extensive and useful scholarly apparatus, original language alongside decent translation, readable fonts, and helpful diagrams. I need to get the other volumes. Robert Barnard: "Early Marple, in which she solves cases described by other amateur and professional murder buffs gathered in an ad hoc club. Some engaging stories, but the sedentary format (cf. Orczy's Old Man in the Corner stories) becomes monotonous over the book length. Contains one of Christie's few excursions into the working class, Death by Drowning." [10] References or allusions [ edit ] References to other works [ edit ] First of all, I would like to send a huge thank you to Joshua Blum, for sending me a copy of The Thirteenth Hour! I had such a great time reading it! To start off, I really loved the concept of a boy falling asleep in class, with the story all his dream. It is definitely a unique view and something that I would never have thought to write a story on myself. I really enjoyed the whole concept of the book and the writing style was very enjoyable!