Gothic mystery 
 Elderly author, very successful and renowned for hiding her own true story behind litany of made up stories, contracts a bookish young amateur biographer to write 'the truth' about her life as she prepares for death. 
 The biographer, Margaret Lea, works with her father, a collector and seller of antique books, and has a distant relationship with her reclusive mother. Margaret story too is revealed as the book progresses. 
 Books and stories form the spine of the work, 
 Vida Winter the author, with her best-sellers and book of thirteen tales with just twelve stories, 
 Margaret, her work and life revolving around books, especially Victorian works 
 Jane Eyre makes multiple appearances and there are parallels between the stories. 
 Much of the action in both Angelfield house and Vida's current home takes place in the libraries 
 Twins, incest, scientific reasoning, abandoned child, being an outsider, search for personal history and sense of identity, reconciliation with loss. 
 So many fascinating characters, Emmeline and Adeline, Missus Dunne and John Dig, Dr Maudsley, Ambrose Proctor, Ivan Lea and wife, Aurelius Love. 
 Ouside the main (view spoiler)[ four (twins, Vida, Margaret), my favourite was Hester Barrow the governess. Unlike in Jane Eyre she has no relationship with the master of the house, but is a fascinating study of a women seeking to apply herself with scientific and intellectual rigour in a world where neither is expected or respected in a woman 
 Even with the relatively happy endings, we are left with some big loose ends and open questions (hide spoiler)]