Title: Bellman & Black

Author: Diane Setterfield

Publisher: Atria 2014

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 336

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: UnRead Shelf; Alphabet Soup; Women Authors

Caught up in a moment of boyhood competition, William Bellman recklessly aims his slingshot at a rook resting on a branch, killing the bird instantly. It is a small but cruel act, and is soon forgotten. By the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William seems to have put the whole incident behind him. It was as if he never killed the thing at all. But rooks don’t forget…

Years later, when a stranger mysteriously enters William’s life, his fortunes begin to turn—and the terrible and unforeseen consequences of his past indiscretion take root. In a desperate bid to save the only precious thing he has left, he enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner. Together, they found a decidedly macabre business.

Setterfield always knows how to unsettle her reader. There is someone almost unseemly in reading about the life of William Bellman. The reader can see his failings and knows what is missing from his life, but he never seems to understand. And the reader is left to hope that they do not turn out like William Bellman. I really enjoyed this very strange twisted tale. I loved the interludes about rooks and the various thoughts on time and memory. I finished the book and had to sit with the story for a few hours before being able to decide if I really liked it or not. I felt the same way about Setterfield’s previous work The Thirteenth Tale. Now I must pick up her newest novel…

Next up on the TBR pile: