Gothic fiction

Bellman & Black

by Diane Setterfield

As a boy, William Bellman kills a rook with a perfectly aimed stone and then tries to forget the small act of violence. Years of discipline make him a prosperous mill owner, but a succession of deaths leaves him haunted by a mysterious man in black who appears at every funeral. A half-remembered bargain leads William to build Bellman & Black, an extravagant emporium devoted entirely to mourning. Dark and meditative, this novel suits readers who enjoy Victorian commerce, ominous birds, psychological hauntings, and ambition sharpened into a prison by guilt.