Title: Bellman & Black

Writer: Diane Setterfield

Publishing House: Atria

Date of Publication: November 5th 2013

Rating: 5 stars

‘’In the few minutes since the boys had left the place, rooks had come. They circled above the oak, fifteen or twenty of them. More were arriving from all directions. They stretched across the sky, loose skeins of dark marks, converging on this place. One by one they descended to alight in the branches of the tree. Ordinarily such a congregation would be accompanied by the noise of strong chatter as the birds flung sound at each other like gravel. This gathering was different: it took place in intent and purposeful silence.

 Every bird on every branch was looking at his direction.’’

First things first. This novel is the very definition, the epitome of the Victorian Gothic story. It is the child of a contemporary Dickens, a dark masterpiece by one…