Bellman & Black : a novel

Title:

Author:

Setterfield, Diane.

Personal Author:

Setterfield, Diane.

ISBN:

9781476711959

Edition:

First Emily Bestler/Atria books hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

328 pages ; 24 cm

Abstract:

Killing a bird with his slingshot as a boy, William Bellman grows up a wealthy family man unaware of how his act of childhood cruelty will have terrible consequences until a wrenching tragedy compels him to enter into a macabre bargain with a stranger in black.

Genre:

Ghost stories.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... East End	Book	FICTION SETTERF	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	FICTION SETTERF	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	FICTION SETTERF	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	FICTION SETTERF	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION SETTERF	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

#1 New York Times bestselling author

"An astonishing work of genius."--Bookreporter.com

"Magically transformative."--Bookpage

Can one moment in time haunt you forever?

From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Tale comes a "poetic and mysterious" ( Booklist ) story that will haunt you to your very core.

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.

And Bellman & Black is born.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A boy hits the wrong bird with a slingshot, with lifelong consequences, in this second venture into gothic territory from Setterfield, author of the hugely popular The Thirteenth Tale (2006). The book begins in the mid-19th century, in an English village whose focal point is a textile mill. At age 10, William Bellman, showing off for two friends, shoots a rook with a slingshot. Two decades later, William is rising rapidly through the ranks at the mill. He is the nephew of Paul, the owner's son, however, William's advancement is due more to sheer diligence than to nepotism. He has mastered every aspect of the mill's operation when a series of unfortunate events advances his career prospects beyond his wildest dreams. The owner dies, apparently of old age, then Paul expires suddenly. Other deaths follow in quick succession, including those of William's mother and Luke, one of two witnesses to the slingshot incident. Only the reader is aware, due in part to the appearance of these birds before each death and intermittent segments detailing the mythology and lore surrounding them, that rooks are harbingers of doom. William is oblivious, although a stranger in black appears at each funeral, regarding him sardonically. By now, William owns the mill since the last heir, Charles, an artist, also suffered a rook-related death after William's artistically gifted daughter Dora showed Charles a drawing of her favorite black-plumaged bird. It isn't until most of William's family are wiped out by an epidemic that he suspects the strange Mr. Black's role in all this. Desperate to save Dora, he enters into a bargain with Black, the exact terms of which remain obscure, even at times to William, but it involves opening a Selfridge's-like London emporium specializing in the trappings of mourning and funerals. Although this novel succeeds in creating an atmosphere of creeping dread, the effect is attenuated by too much detail about the running of mills and department stores and also by a growing puzzlement over why an impulsive childhood transgression, never repeated, should exact such a terrible penalty. A gothic tale in which moments of tedium are relieved by morbidity.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.