Review: Once Upon a River

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An absorbing read that, despite being chunky (500 pages), I managed to get through quite quickly (I finished the last 150 pages during a two-hour flight).

The underlying mystery of the book - how a child who appeared dead could come back to life and who that child is - slowly unfolds. But, the real joy of the book is the characters and how they interact. All of them, in their own ways, are at turns vulnerable and strong.

I watched the TV adaption of the 13th tale a few years ago and I regret that now. I wished I had read the book as I think I would have enjoyed it more. Mind you, the TV adaption did have Olivia Coleman (post Broadchurch but way before Oscar) and Vanessa Redgrave. So, the adaption was probably worth it for those two alone!

I might now investigate Bellman & Black (Setterfield's second novel) to see what that's about as, I think anyway, there hasn't been a TV adaptation of that!


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