Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

Bellman & Black

by Diane Setterfield

The long-awaited new fiction from the author of THE THIRTEENTH TALE is a haunting Victorian tale of love, loss and the mystery of death.

As a boy, William Bellman commits one small cruel act that appears to have unforseen and terrible consequences. The killing of a rook with his catapult is soon forgotten amidst the riot of boyhood games. And by the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, he seems indeed, to be a man blessed by fortune.

Until tragedy strikes, and the stranger in black comes, and William Bellman starts to wonder if all his happiness is about to be eclipsed. Desperate to save the one precious thing he has left, he enters into a bargain. A rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to found a decidedly macabre business.

And Bellman & Black is born.

Reviewed by Lianne on

2 of 5 stars

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Bellman and Black follows the story of William Bellman, whose life and rise in society is an interesting tale. By all accounts I should have really enjoyed this novel, it has all of the elements that I enjoy in a historical fiction: family drama, main character working his way in and up a family that rejected him, a touch of strange, almost Gothic atmosphere.

Instead, I found myself trudging through the novel. It wasn’t quite what I expected it to be compared to the premise provided: the novel focused a lot on William’s backstory and family affairs and everyday business dealings. I don’t mind backstory as it gives the reader a sense of who the character is but 30% into the novel, I found myself wondering when Mr. Black and the “macabre” side of the story would start. And when the macabre/Gothic elements did kick in, it felt rather mute compared to the rest of the story.

Bellman and Black I think would make a visually interesting movie but as a novel, it felt like a miss to me: something was missing to make it really interesting for me (especially compared to her first novel, which I loved). Maybe my expectations were too high but the novel lost my attention somewhere halfway.

You can read this review in its entirety over at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2013/10/14/review-bellman-and-black/

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  • Started reading
  • 14 October, 2013: Finished reading
  • 14 October, 2013: Reviewed