"The Woman in the Library" is part romance and part mystery. There's the woman's scream mystery story and a "real" (fictional) series of letters at the end of each chapter where a helper in Boston provided details about Boston and and a critique of the story to the author. This wannabe writer increasingly tried to influence the writing of the main story, so we see a battle begin as the author resisted certain suggestions. I began to wonder if the intended ending (from initial clues) might change because of this "outside" influence.

In the main story, it's a well-written story about four very different people becoming friends and a romance or two growing from this friendship. They talked about the woman's scream but didn't really play detective. The clues were still all there, and I did guess whodunit and how (though not why) right before the big reveal. The characters were engaging and reacted realistically to events. It's an unusual story and written in present tense, which I didn't even notice until nearly halfway through.

There was a fair amount of bad language. There was a brief sex scene that wasn't graphically, body-part described except for one sentence. Overall, I'd recommend the story.

Sometimes a story is made more enjoyable more because of how it is told. This is one of those cases. You've heard of a book within a book? In this one there's at least a book within a book within a book.

The main story is about four strangers who meet in a library and are brought together when they hear the sound of a woman's scream. At the end of each chapter however, there is an email to the supposed author of the book (Hannah) from a fan/fellow author (Leo) who is also proof-reading each chapter.

The main story is a whodunnit with some interesting characters, but the book within a book aspects keeps things going. When the main story slows down a bit, the story with Hannah and Leo helps keep things going and vice-versa.

It's a different take on a mystery. I highly recommend this one!

#netgalley #TheWomanintheLibrary

It took me sometime yo get into this book, but that was only because I was trying to work through the many layers and facets of this story - it really is an enthralling book. I must admit at first I thought I knew "who did It" and said to "myself that is clever - not done often". after all the book catch line was "my first coffee with a killer", but as the book progressed and evolved, the layers added to the story with the ending being pulled together very well.
Oh I was wrong bout the murderer!

Sulari Gentill is a new to me author and one I definitely look forward to hearing from again. This locked in a room, mystery in a mystery story is a genuine delight to read. There are twists and turns aplenty, excellent character development with a side of secrecy and friendships that form or do they? And who doesn't love a book set in a library?

got this book as an ARC through NetGalley - it will be released on June 7, 2022. I loved this book! It sucked me in almost immediately - it was written in a way that I've never seen before. There's a book within a book - a writer is writing a thriller / mystery about four strangers who meet in a public library in London, only to find out that they're witnesses to a murder. But the author is also sending chapters back and forth to a fan for his thoughts and comments (sometimes wanted, sometimes not). The framing was interesting because it allowed the pandemic to be in the story without it getting in the way of the plot. And the story within a story was nice and twisty, too!

Libraries are exciting, fabulous places and adding a murder makes it just a bit more of both. This was an enjoyable read.

I love a good book-within-a-book premise, and this twisty mystery/thriller is extremely well done. It starts off innocently enough, but then the darkness starts creeping in and it's a page-turner from then on. I got chills up my spine at one point (no spoilers!) and then I couldn't put it down.

This novel feels a bit Hitchcock and a bit Agatha Christie... difficult to pin down and describe but well worth the time spent.

Sulari Gentill gives us an action-packed story In The Woman in the Library. In the very beginning of the book we learn that four previously unknown characters share a common experience. While these strangers sit at the same table in the Boston Public Library, they hear a young woman’s scream. But the security guard finds no body - at least not until much later. These four people bond over the experience as they try to solve the mystery. As the plot continues, it is difficult to put the book down. Every chapter reveals something about Freddie, Cain, Whit, and Marigold and the relationships among them as they try to solve the mystery. Sulari Gentill provides many twists and turns to make your heart race right until the end. I highly recommend this book for both her novel and style of writing.

I confess. Not unbiased because I really geek the writings of Sulari Gentill. Even if it's not Rowley Sinclair in the story. And even if it's in the same town that Rowley was most recently staying. And besides, one of the *characters* is a library!
This is a very unusual story within a story as well as a mystery within a friendship tale. The publisher's blurb is a little murky, but not bad as hooks go. Don't want to get long winded or give anything away, but I LOVED IT!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

I really liked the framing device. It added a lot to the story and it was a fun addition that complicated a story about a writer writing about a writer. It was clever how the author ate her cake and had it too with regards to mentioning the pandemic. Sometimes this sort of meta trickery can be distracting but in this case I was delighted by it. Recommended for fans of Anthony Horowitz.

Four strangers being at a table in the Boston Public Library. They're all different, unassuming, and one just happens to be a murderer.

But the plot does not stop there. Another layer is added when we discover that these characters are another writers unfinished manuscript.

Layered and meta, Gentill delivers a complex and engaging mystery thriller that will keep you on your toes like the best of Hitchcock and Agatha Christie.

Four strangers are brought together when a murder is committed in the library. Each unique character brings their own personality to the story, adding depth and perspective. Uniquely written, each chapter ends with a letter from one author to another critiquing the story and creating a second mysterious element. Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill ; a fast-paced murder mystery where every character is a suspect.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is an inventive mystery with several layers of intrigue. Four strangers accidentally meet in the reading room of the Boston Public Library and are seated at a table when there is a scream which they soon realize has come from a dying woman. Then, shortly after, the first person writer, an Australian who is living in Boston on a writing grant, realizes that one of the other three, a woman and two men, is the person who has committed the murder. Freddie, the writer, weaves a tale of friendship, caution, and suspicion that cleverly leads to the identification of the murderer, but not without sleuthing on her part that brings in more characters to enrich the story. To further broaden the plot, there are letters from a rather creepy admirer of Freddie. Gentill never takes a false step in her story within a story, and this truly is a book that is hard to put down. Its unusual plot and connections among the four (or is it five?) main characters is brilliant and skillful.

The peaceful afternoon in the Boston Public Library by the terrified scream of a woman. Library security guards quickly work to contain the scene and have everyone currently in the library remain where they are. Four strangers at a library table strike up a conversation while they wait and they develop a strong friendship that will grow beyond the library. Each of them has a reason for being in the library the day that the woman was killed, and one of them is a killer.

In a secondary story, the author of the story about the murder in the library sends each chapter of the book to a reader in Boston (Leo) who sends back comments and suggestions. Leo gets quite bold as time goes on and he begins to offer some inappropriate advice as well as actual crime scene photos from recent murders in the Boston area (to help the author with her authenticity). Leo's comments and suggestions are included in the second half of each chapter until it is evident that the author is concerned and has shared the concern with local authorities.

The authorities want the author to stop the communication with Leo, but instead the author wants to draw Leo out, reveal who he actually is or where he lives so that the authorities can be informed. But Leo stays elusive while offer more and more realistic advice on murder ... to be used in the book, presumably.

This two-story format is not completely new, and typically I love the blending of realities this way. There is the story, which is surrounding by the 'real' author and a possibly deranged beta reader, both of which are pieces of fiction created by the real author.

Yeah, I like that kind of stuff.

But the two different stories were too divergent for me. I found myself much more focused on the author/Leo story and wanting to skip ahead through the 'library friends' section to get to the Leo section. After all, why would the writer include the 'real life' portions if they weren't important, and if they are important, why should I care about the fictional characters when there's a more interesting drama being played out? (And for the record, I know the 'real life' section is also fictional, but I'm looking for a way to define it.)

Although a character in the fictional portion is named for the beta reader Leo (again, with the hopes of drawing out more information about him), there really isn't any cross over. These two stories don't take place in the same time, place, or reality. So the two stories work against each other, competing for attention.

Leo's going off the rails was pretty evident and easy to predict early on, so the revelations about him as we go don't turn out to be any surprise. I highlighted a section in my book, fairly early on, and noted "this is going to be important later" and I was right.

We have all the ingredients of a murder mystery, except for a breath-taking chase and ending. This sort of fizzles out, which was disappointing.

Looking for a good book? The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is two mysteries rolled into one book, but it's hard to give them both equal attention and the end winds down without packing a punch.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5*
What an outstanding job and literary work in the crime-fiction genre! This whodunit will ring in your ears like an Alfred Hitchcock or deeper with a subplot that is chilling. When the characters come together as strangers in the Ornate Reading Room in the Boston Public Library, they will leave as friends and much deeper after a murder occurs in this "locked room in reverse" thriller.

Freddie, Whit, Cain and Marigold are sitting at a table in the library when they hear a blood curdling scream in one of the other rooms. Little did they know that one of them would be the killer. Strangely, when security locks them in place to investigate, the police cannot find a body. They are able to leave, so they meet for coffee to discuss what has happened and discover they are established writers and one is a stalker. Later, they will learn the body was concealed under a buffet table with a tablecloth explaining why it wasn't found right away.

The narrator is Freddie who decides to write a book using them as the characters. There is a Hannibal Lector feel in the subplot from a writer Leo offering advice on her writing through emails. His input becomes dark and unnatural, but keeping you involved and changing your mind several times with who the killer is. The characters are well played and believable, but the biggest capture of my attention is the persona of each friend and how they each perceive the other. Plus, an unbelievable stunt to the writing when you don't know or forget which characters are made up! This is genius, Sulari Gentill! You will see when you read this gem!
Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this title in exchange for my review.

I loved this book! It is the story of four people who are brought together when they happen to be sitting near each other in the Boston Public Library Reading Room when a woman screams and is presumably murdered. The four strike up a friendship and decide that they owe it to the woman who was murdered to try and discover what exactly happened to her. Two of the four are novelists, which definitely adds to the story (while crime writers solving crimes themselves isn't a new trope in the mystery genre, this story does it very well). At the very same time that our four new friends are trying to solve the murder, the reader is reminded through emails that are interspersed throughout the book that this is in fact a manuscript that a writer named Hannah is in the process of writing, and she is receiving feedback, research help, and perhaps overzealous advice from a man named Leo. This also adds another layer of interest and even suspense to the book.
I enjoyed getting to know the four main characters and see how they developed as the reader (and the "narrator" of the story, Freddie) really got to know them. I got definite "Only Murders in the Building" vibes from the story, and I really enjoyed the camaraderie between the characters as their quest to find out what happened to the "woman in the library" grew. The interjections from Leo's emails were also very interesting and different, but a great addition to the book.
I would absolutley recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries. I read it quickly and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next!

A murder mystery centered around an event that occurs in a Library sounds like a perfect match for me. However, despite some high points, I wasn't as captivated in the investigation as I wanted to be.

This book had so much promise. I loved the framing device provided by the author of a mystery novel, sharing chapters with her early reader who has a strange obsession with her. I knew there was something off about his correspondence, but once he started sending pictures from crime scenes I was absolutely enthralled by the turn--he's a killer! I tore through the plot in between the framing device correspondence, eager to see what he would write to the author next. Problem is, the entire actual book is just the plot between the correspondence...and so, the book that the author of the framing device is writing is as boring as any obnoxious arm-chair detective mystery novel. The characters are dull, the plot is dull, I just couldn't care less about their plight or who didn't trust who or who had a "crush on" who. Very immature and predictable.

An interesting one, this. A murder-mystery centred around four strangers who are brought together by the sound of a woman's terrified scream inside Boston Public Library; while security check it out, the four strike up a conversation, and friendships are formed. It just so happens that one of them is a murderer...

The narrator is Winifred Kincaid ("people call me Freddie"), a writer whose vivid imagination soon casts her new friends (who she refers to as Freud Girl, Heroic Chin, and Handsome Man) as potential characters in her own murder-mystery she could be writing.

Overlaying this is the fact that the overall murder-mystery (and the murder-mystery within it) is being written by an Australian author, Hannah Tigone, who is receiving detailed feedback on her work-in-progress by another author, Leo Johnson, based in Boston. In another twist, 'Leo Johnson' is the name of a character in Hannah's book. But soon, Leo the author becomes a more sinister figure, who may be shifting his research into crime and punishment from the abstract to the concrete, and developing an obsession with Hannah.

So far, all very 'meta' about the mechanics of crime writing; and potentially very interesting, too.

But, the concept of a book-within-a-book-within-a-book never really gels convincingly, and what the reader is left with is a fairly standard modern-day murder-mystery - though a perfectly readable one at that.

It's just that, after the promising opening, I was expecting more.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A Murder mystery with lots of potential bad guys with twists and turns right to the very end. The way this book is written is unique, an author is writing a book about an author writing a book. Interspersed are letters from a fan writing to the author who has a very dark side to him.

Four strangers are sitting in the library when they hear a woman scream. This starts them talking and although they are an eclectic group of people they develop a friendship. What they don’t know is that there are connections between some of them. A dark story is unraveled and their friendship is challenged over and over again. Throw in a character or two that makes you think perhaps they are the bad guy and you get an amazing mystery. I couldn’t stop reading this book, the author also shows us some of what a writer goes through to create a plot and characters.

Exciting, edge of your seat book. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this amazing book.