In The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, protagonist Vida Winter is a complete mystery. Journalists have devoted their careers to understanding the famous novelist, but her incredible means of avoidance and manipulation have always led them in the wrong direction. Now that she's elderly, she's ready to tell her life story, and there's no better person for the job than Margaret Lea, an amateur biographer, to help her out. Together, the two end up learning a great deal about one another and wind up coming face to face with their pasts.