The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Margaret Lea lives a quiet life, finding solace and company in the old books she loves and a vocation in helping run her father’s antiquarian bookshop. One day she receives a letter from a stranger she has never met before--the famous and reclusive author, Vida Winter. Margaret has never read Miss Winter’s books, though she knows of her popularity. She also knows that Miss Winter has told a different tale of her life to everyone who has ever interviewed her. She is more adept at spinning stories than some of us are at breathing. My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself, Miss Winter writes.
What succor, what consolation is there is truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? . . .What you need are the plumb comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.
Yet something is haunting Miss Winters, and the need to Tell the truth is consuming her. She has chosen Margaret to write her biography. Her true biography. Intrigued in spite of herself, Margaret is pulled into a past that is all-consuming, drawn into the warp and weft of Miss Winter’s story. And as Margaret slowly pulls Miss Winter’s story into the light, it becomes a kind of cathartic release for her own secret that is gnawing at her.
Part gothic tale, part detective story, and part biography, this intricate tale pulls together the events of the past with startling revelations for the present. The presence of certain books, like Jane Eyre and The Woman in White, heighten the supernatural overtones and provide insights into the characters’ motivations. Thoroughly engrossing, The Thirteenth Tale is a seductive and thought-provoking read, and the themes and beautiful cover makes it at home on any booklover’s shelf.

(Caution: This book contains intense themes and elements, and I recommend it only for mature readers.)