William Bellman was only ten years old when he shot and
killed a rook while showing off to his friends, Charles,
Fred, and Luke. Unfortunately, he was haunted from then on
by the specter in black, a man he forgot for many years. In
adulthood, William makes a wager- but will it cost him
everything he has left, even as BELLMAN & BLACK is born?
BELLMAN & BLACKis a spellbinding historical
tale guaranteed to keep the reader up long past his or her
bedtime. Diane Setterfield's lyrical prose draws the reader
into the story as we follow William's life through both his
successes and his heartaches. William builds his clothing
empire even as he is haunted by the ghostly specter of Mr.
Black. The eerie presence of the rooks, both through notes
about the rooks as well as their appearance in the
storyline, heightens the otherworldliness of the tale.
Having read and loved Diane Setterfield's first novel, THE
THIRTEENTH TALE, I had high expectations for BELLMAN &
BLACK- expectations that Diane Setterfield
more than exceeded! BELLMAN & BLACK is the
sort of story that you can't put down once you start and yet
you don't want it to end either. The mundane details of
dyeing fabric, calculating figures, and crafting a new
industry are juxtaposed nicely with a twist of the
supernatural. BELLMAN & BLACK is nothing
short of mesmerizing!
As a boy, William Bellman commits one small, cruel act:
killing a bird with his slingshot. Little does he know the
unforeseen and terrible consequences of the deed, which is
soon forgotten amidst the riot of boyhood games. By the time
he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William
seems to be a man blessed by fortune—until tragedy strikes
and the stranger in black comes. Then he starts to wonder if
all his happiness is about to be eclipsed. Desperate to save
the one precious thing he has left, William enters into a
rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to
found a decidedly macabre business.
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