The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Four strangers sit engrossed in their own quiet pursuits at the Boston Public Library when the silence is broken by a scream. During the ensuing lockdown, which lasts only a short time, the four become fast friends, something the narrator muses can only happen in times of crisis. Released by library security, the four head for coffee at a cafe called the Map Room to chat some more. “And so we go to the Map Room to found a friendship, and I have my first coffee with a killer.” So ends the first chapter of The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill. This is the first book I have read by Ms. Gentill, but it certainly will not be the last.

Told from the perspective of Winnifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Australian writer living in Boston on a prestigious scholarship. Freddie sets up in the library’s impressive and imposing Reading Room in hopes of focusing on her writing. Unfortunately, she is unsure where to begin and is distracted by the three library patrons sitting near her. Deciding to focus on them, toying with the idea of creating characters to construct her novel, she dubs them “Freud Girl,” “Heroic Chin,” and “Handsome Man,” and sketches some backgrounds for them. Once the scream shatters the invisible walls that held them in their communal solitude, Freddie learns their real names, Marigold Anastas, Whit Metters, and Abel Manners, respectively.

The scream, which had been dismissed initially by security as a harmless prank, becomes the impetus for Freddie to learn more about her enigmatic friends when the body of a young woman is discovered in the room next to the Reading Room. All are fairly certain they are innocent, given the fact that they were together when the scream happened. But all is not as it seems. Ultimately, Freddie has reasons to mistrust some of what her new friends tell her.

The Woman in the Library is about friendship, specifically way we can become close friends with people very unlike us in a moment of crisis. It also explores the imperfect way we get to know others, sometimes misinterpreting signs that go against our preconceptions.

Ms. Gentill cleverly employs a frame narrative to underscore these themes. Beginning with a prologue and ending each chapter with an email correspondence, mostly from an erstwhile author, known only as Leo for most of the book, to the fictional author of the story, Hannah Tigone, the fictional Australian writer of the novel. Within these emails, Leo acts as a beta reader and fact-checker from afar. Set during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Hannah cannot travel to Boston, so Leo, reading the chapters as they are written, researches locations and makes suggestions for Hannah. He also makes some predictions about who the killer might be. The chapters that follow each email act as Hannah’s response to Leo. It is amusing to be privy to Leo’s thoughts about the mystery. And it is also amusing to follow how Hannah incorporates his suggestions in each ensuing chapter, not always in the way he intends.

Within this frame, Ms. Gentill explores the nature of the relationship between writers and readers, between fiction and contemporary events, and even between different genres of writing. The frame allows the author to introduce contemporary concerns, not just about the pandemic, but about racial justice as well, from the perspective of a white reader. Her fictional author is not white, nor is Ms. Gentill, and not keen to address either subject. This is a canny move by Ms. Gentill to draw attention to the way that the narrative surrounding minority agency can easily be hijacked by the majority.

These serious issues, however, don’t weigh the story down. It moves along at a nice pace to a satisfying conclusion. I highly recommend this novel.

An intriguing book within a book about friendship, love, loyalty, morality, obsession, and murder.

It starts off a bit slow, and that may be due to getting into the flow of format it’s written in. However, once I got used to the format, I was hooked.
I thought it was well done and I was surprised by the ending and ultimately “who done it”.
I love that the author was able to raise thought provoking topics such as whether to include global events like the pandemic in literature and whether race is something that should be explicitly outlined by the author and if not what the impact could be on the reader and their perceptions.
I felt that there were a few plot holes that weren’t tied up at the end which was a little disappointing.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and I’m interested in reading more of Sulari Gentill’s work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this eARC!

Interesting mystery book-actually a “ book within a book”. Four strangers meet in the Boston Public Library. A terrifying scream and subsequently discovered body initiates their friendship, and early on we learn that one of them is the killer.There are enough twists, turns, surprising revelations and “ red herrings” to stump even the most astute reader.
An entertaining, well written mystery that will keep you guessing until the last reveal. Quite good!!

I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this book. I absolutely loved the story within a story, and the email exchanges between the "author" and her obsessed fan. So many twists and turns! I have a soft spot for locked room mysteries, and this book turned out to be about so much more than the "whodunnit". I loved the characters, especially Cain. Can't wait for this to be published and rave about it to my fellow readers and thrust a copy upon them!

What a ride of chilling crime fiction intermingled with love of books and writing!
I have to admit, when I started this the style confused the hell out of me, I could not figure out what was going on, there’s a story inside a story; a writer writing a story of a writer writing a story? Yeah, it was a bit challenging at first but I got sucked into story really fast, I loved the sudden coincidental friendship, the characters and the classics whodunnit mystery. I tried guessing until the end, changing my mind occasionally. I was especially surprised by the parallel events occurring in the real part of the story as much as “the fiction”. Definitely recommended for crime fiction fans and aspiring authors!

A scream in a room in a library leads to an intriguing puzzle whose pieces did not fit together until the end.

This book caught me from the first few pages. I really like the unique concept of the one-sided letter as well as the writer’s “novel”. At times, it was a little confusing, but it worked. Throughout the first 40%, I couldn’t put it down. The end of each chapter was a cliff hanger that made me want to keep reading.

In the latter half, the story seemed to drag on. Maybe I read too many romances, but the romantic relationships seemed forced and too serious too fast. And then I feel like the reveal of the killer was way too neatly summed up. There was really no guessing because you know very early on that it is 1 of 3 people. When Freddie guesses 1 of them, within a few pages another one is guessed and then everything is immediately revealed. All within a few pages.

The book definitely kept my interest, and I read it very fast, but I feel like it was lacking.

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC.

A massive thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange of my honest review.

This book was amazing maybe even addicting as I just had to finish it, truly a page turner. A book inside of a book, I have to say this is the first of me reading something like this and I did like it, honestly I was hooked.

The characters were well written which I had the pleasure of reading about them that I liked. The plot was intense and had tension which kept me guessing as the book takes place in a library. I love twists and turns in books and this one aced it well and truly, what I thought I was getting into when I started was so much more. I would well and truly have to recommend this to fellow book readers.

I am so looking forward to any new novels Sulari Gentill brings out in the near future.

This book caught me by surprise. The original description was that of a cozy mystery centered within the Boston Public Library. While that is the where the story begins this is a layered mystery that explores the art of writing itself. Each chapter contains two separate narratives. One revolving around the discovery of a body in the Boston Public Library that brings four strangers together (two of whom are novelists working on their next project). The other narrative is a series of emails to the author of the mystery; Hannah, from a fan called Leo who is responding to each chapter of the story as he reads them. While the murder mystery is engrossing and fun, the meta commentary from Leo becomes increasingly disturbing as he provides critiques and “research” along the way. Leo’s correspondence touches on whether to include the pandemic in the main plot line of the story, and how knowledge of a character’s race affects how they are received by a reader. This is a unique reading experience that is fun and fast-paced. Despite the twisty plot and meta commentary Gentill’s writing is accessible and relatively easy to follow. I am looking forward to reading more from her in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an advanced e-copy of this title.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book before publication date in exchange for an honest review.

I have not had the pleasure to read a mystery like this before. Without giving too much away, the format of the novel was interesting to me; an author writing a book about an author writing a book while attempting to solve a murder, and included are letters to the actual author (not to be confused with the author in the book) giving advice on her chapters and assisting with research.

I can't say that there was a big SHOCK moment, but lots of nice little plot twists. Check out this wholly enjoyable book.

I don’t know if it’s just me, right now, but I am struggling to get i to this one. The back and forth between the “book within a book” and the letters to the author of the”book within a book” keeps throwing me off. Plus the inconsistency in the “bwab” that then get explained on the letter just feel annoying. And I feel taken out of the story.

I am sure there are other for whom this hits the spot, for me…I can’t get into it.

Although I was unsure of this book to begin with mistaken it as slow, this is not the case. Once I settled down to read it properly and I was sooo attached. Once stuck in it, I was and unable to put it down. Not my usual kind of read but a thoroughly enjoying read all the same and it draws you in at a nice steady pace.
Full review to come on YouTube.

Huge appreciation to NetGalley and publishers fr making the ARC of this book available.
oh, what a read! Mystery in a mystery, book in a book, suspense is just building up and you have a huge cast of characters who could have done it. deep-dive into the brains and psyche of characters intellectual and sinister!

Delightful, entertaining, and mind-boggling read.
Writing is 8/10, suspense is 8/10, and entertaining value is 9/10.

**Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I loved this book! It's a "reverse" locked room mystery that starts with a scream in the Boston Public Library, which leads to the discovery of a dead body. The four main characters are strangers who are brought together after hearing the scream, but as time goes by, it becomes clear that some of them know more than they're letting on.

I didn't predict where the story was going, which I always enjoy in mysteries/thrillers. This book is well-written, the characters are well-developed, and the story is pretty fast-paced (I devoured this in a few days). I also thought the use of the book-within-a-book format was extremely well-done and really sets this book apart from others in the genre. This book will make the perfect summer vacation read and I highly recommend it!

'd like to thank Netgalley for the ARC of this book. Opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This book was lackluster at best. At first, I was intrigued. I liked the story within a story concept. I wanted to see how things would grow and develop, particularly the thriller being written by Hannah. But, as the story continued, everything felt less clever. The inner story - the "draft" that Hannah is getting feedback on, grows tedious as the four main characters waffle about making poor choices in an attempt to solve a murder. A lot of it hinges on a romance that rings entirely hollow and dull. I didn't like any of the characters, so I found myself disconnecting and caring less about them.

As for the outer narrative, the letters which Hannah receives, there is absolutely no hint at the story's finer details. In the beginning, their relationship seems harmless enough, and Leo is a pleasant little reprieve.

SPOILER:

Soon, he becomes pretty dark, and then immediately after, the FBI is involved. I expected things to ramp up, for Hannah to begin to lure Leo into a trap. Instead, we see her make a few feeble attempts, asking for an address and a picture, and then she does little else. By the end of the book, he's neatly captured with no real climax. It was a let down.

Meanwhile, the draft trudges on, and it also ends on a perfectly hollow note.

Just such a disappointment.

Four strangers are drawn together in the Boston Public Library when they hear a woman scream. Security says they haven't found anything, it was probably just a prank. But when a woman's body turns up the four new friends are determined to find out who she was and why she was murdered. But some of the new friends have pasts they'd like to keep to themselves and one of them is the murderer. Toss in a side story told in letters between an obsessed fan of a murder mystery writer who lives in Australia and things turn creepy quickly. Is Leo just a quirky neighbor who doesn't have the literary skills to make it as a published author? He certainly makes his disappointment known with each rejection letter he receives. Why does he always seem to be "in the area" when bodies are discovered? And why does he keep showing up at Winifred "Freddie"s" door? The various strands of the story intertwine, twist and get rather knotted while the mystery is eventually unraveled and the murderer is discovered among them. The reader knows from the outset that one of them is the murderer, but the Who, Why, and When are left up to the reader to hypothesize until the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the idea of a book within a book but was more frustrated with the letters between the two. I think it would have been better without the letters as I was more invested in the main plot. I think doing both made it so I didn’t know which to focus on and the book ending wasn’t as satisfying if I were to just focus on one. The writing is well done just not for me.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review! This book was truly addictive and I was HOOKED! I love the whole book about an author writing an book and it was just fun! Made me feel like I was watching a Hitchcock film!

Susan Gentill crafts a unique narrative style for her mystery, The Woman in the Library. Unfortunately, her characters are not as fascinating as her clever writing perspective. While this novel will find fans, this reviewer is not one of them.

The Woman in the Library is a difficult book to categorize simply because, in so many ways, it is two mysteries in one. It begins with an email from aspiring writer, Leo to a successful writer named Hannah. It's obvious they've corresponded in the past and he is, essentially, reading chapters of her book as she finishes them and offering critiques and advice. Hannah is in Australia and he is in Boston, which is the location of her book. The book she is writing is The Woman in the Library. It starts out simply enough, we follow aspiring writer, Freddie to the Boston Public Library where she ends strikes up a conversation with four people after all of them heard a woman scream. Of course, they later find out the woman was murdered and the four insta-friends band together to solve the murder while entangling in each other's personal lives.
The four main characters are compelling as they all have quirks and idiosyncrasies that make them believable and the mystery itself twists and turns in several different directions. As it's a mystery, I don't want to say much about the plot. I will say that what makes this book exceptional is the secondary narrative, the email at the end of every chapter from Leo to Hannah. In the first couple of chapters, I truly checked to see if it was some printing mistake then I got completely sucked in. Both narratives are mysteries and I raced through this book trying to solve them. Again, I can't say much without giving the whole thing away but the characterization of everyone is spot-on. I was completely creeped out by aspects of this book and I have been telling everyone about it since I finished it. I rarely write reviews but this one kept me riveted the whole time. It was fabulous!